SurfingSpider's Machinations
by SurfingSpider
Summary: 2041. A series of expanded plot devices akin to Tom Clancy's Op-Centre and Powerplay novels (now Ludlum's Covert One too [real pulp]). Sylia struggles to rebuild Genom while forces plot to destroy her.
1. Legacies

SurfingSpider's Machinations  
  
  
  
Legacies  
  
Sylia Stingray stood at the window of her office, a window that was one hundred and four floors up from the unseen ground below, and she looked out at the sprawling metropolis of Osaka-Kobe. The city that was the new home of the Genom Corporation, the building its new headquarters, and her office the one that ran it. What's left of it, Sylia mused, adding up the remaining assets Genom still had after the destruction and quarantine of most of its facilities in central Tokyo; the production lines and warehouses at Kobe's port district, regional facilities and Sales branches in most countries - those that hadn't kicked Genom out after the Galatea Incident - and a few bilateral R&D facilities in ASEAN nations.  
  
Barely a third of what Genom could muster before the destruction of central Tokyo, which was actually very good considering. Most watchers expected the corporation to be completely ruined. And it would have, if I hadn't bought out a controlling share of the worthless stock. So now I, Sylia Stingray, own 51% of Genom and am its CEO, and spend most of my time talking to my legal team to defend what remains from almost a hundred class action lawsuits, instead of trying to rebuild and restock. Instead of designing a rogue-safe boomer to replace the tens of thousands that still exist all over the world because despite the danger, do work too important to be replaced. All that and I haven't even mentioned the competition yet.  
  
Sylia turned away from the window, the view no longer relaxing. She went over to her desk, a massive cedar with an embedded computer and a pitcher of water. She would have preferred stronger drink, but it wouldn't do to be drunk while at the wheel of a company that looked like it could fall at any moment and thus end the only chance to permanently cure the boomer plague.  
  
With a long white finger, sunlight not having been in her diet for some months, she depressed a key, which in turn opened up a channel to her Secretary that was outside. "Call Ms. Yamazaki, please," she said and lifted her finger.  
  
Thousands of boomers were out there. In Osaka-Kobe, in Japan, in Asia. In the World. Nigel and Mackie were working hard to build the prototype replacement, the product that Genom's future depended on - and the worlds, if they had bothered to listen to her. But no, with Galatea's destruction they said the situation was over, idiots, and instead turned their grievances on Genom and her when she took over. At least she had been able to stop Genom's dismemberment by successfully winning the case that the Galatea incident had been caused by Industrial Terrorists and not a new life form. Only a few people, most of them in her employ, fully knew the Truth.  
  
Unfortunately many did not, including dozens of former Genom scientists and engineers who had left the company, headhunted, and found work in competitors. Soon all of those companies would be able to produce Boomers and add more danger to the world. Blind to profits, blind to the pieces that were there to pick up after Genom's fall from grace.  
  
But there was one piece of good news. One that would keep Genom's creditors at bay, pay the bills and the legal fees. One piece of good news that would however send shockwaves through the international community when they heard about it.  
  
Sylia sat back down and collected her thoughts. By the time Ms. Yamazaki arrived she would have her fledging plan and hoped to dear god that the energetic and trustworthy woman would be able to carry it out.  
  
She had too, or the house of cards would fall with the slightest puff of air.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Ms. Linna Yamazaki - she was still a Ms. - didn't have time to look out her one hundred and third floor window. She had three plastic paper trays marked IN, OUT and MORE IN. Only a few sheets were laid neatly in the OUT tray, the small jobs that didn't take much time or thought, usually just her signature required. The two IN trays however were stacked well high, easily over a foot each, of papers and folders full of papers all of which required her attention, her limited time. She hated the two IN trays with a passion. But she knew that their contents were important and work she could not delegate to her subordinates of which she had many; they had their own work to do and it was a lot as well. It was the price she had to pay for accepting Sylia's offer to work for her as a Special Personal Assistant in charge of handling the community aspects of rebuilding Genom and the damage Galatea had caused to the city of Tokyo. She liked what she was doing with an equal passion to her hatred of the trays, yet the mountain of work before her made her wonder if she would have taken the offer if she'd known there was so much work to be doen and authority required. She was after all only twenty years old and while Sylia was six years older, she knew that she didn't have Sylia's genius. She still considered herself an ordinary girl, albeit one who had saved the world.  
  
Heroine Only Twenty Saves World! Was the headline Linna had expected when Galatea had defeated, feeling then on top of the world instead of now when she felt the world was crushing down on her. Maybe the headline would come soon in time for her birthday in a week. Twenty-one. Some time to have to relax alone and with her friends. A time to celebrate that she was alive.  
  
Her buzzer rang and she pressed the answer button. "Yes?"  
  
"Ms. Stingray would like to see you in her office immediately, Sir." Her Secretary said through the intercom.  
  
"Fine. I'll be right up," and Linna ended the call. She looked at her trays and sighed. "Too much work and Slyia probably just wants to chat. I guess being the boss means you can delegate all your work and smile for the cameras."  
  
Linna stood and slipped on her aqua jacket over her blouse and left the office to take the stairs to the next floor. She always took the stairs. It was the only time she got to exercise.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"I'm going where?" Linna blanched.  
  
Sylia leaned back in her chair and smiled. "And you'll be leaving tomorrow."  
  
Linna put a hand to her drooping head. "But I've got so much work to do and it just keeps piling up Sylia. Councils and Body Corporates and pensioners all wanting us to do this, repair that or threatening to sue us."  
  
"Well you can send the legal threats to the Law Department," the smugness only grew.  
  
"Don't look at me like that." Linna frowned.  
  
"I'm sorry dear."  
  
Sylia gave Linna a moment to regain her composure.  
  
"Why me?" Linna asked.  
  
"Because you're pro-bono and this is the biggest pro-bono case in the world."  
  
"But a whole country? I can't run a country. It is even legal for us to own a country?"  
  
Sylia's smile vanished to be replaced by her all-business look. "I don't know but the Sierra Leone administration gave the country to us. They don't have the money to pay what the owe us and Genom really need the money to stay afloat.  
  
"Sierra Leone is rich in natural resources and has profitable diamond mines. The country could never get itself to work because it was always having a civil war or such over those mines. The former President skipped the country with millions and an unsteady peace is being held by the administration and the rebels. The administration still holds power but that might change if the Military does a coup and then we wont get anything from them. The administration knows their situation and think we can do a better job running their country than they can, and we use their tax and resource sales to clear the bill."  
  
Linna could feel a headache coming on. She imagined her office full of IN trays. A country. Of millions of people. "I don't know anything about running a country-" she started to protest again.  
  
"Neither do most politicians. The Civil Service will keep everything running."  
  
"But wouldn't it be better to send someone with experience? Someone who even knows what a government does."  
  
"A bureaucrat? Then nothing will change. Linna, it has to be you because your not one of those. You'll assess the situation properly: how the people live; do they have enough food and adequate health services or education, who is corrupt or not pulling their weight. I need to know all of this and not just how much money we can milk from them like all their previous rulers. We can't be like them, we've got to be a responsible government and that's why I want you to go. If I send a munber cruncher they'll turn Genom's control into a dictatorship. The world will think we've invaded the place and that will destroy us, and Sierra Leone's chance for a better future."  
  
"I suppose your right, as usual."  
  
"Pick a team from your best staff. You'll have a Corporate jet take you there." Sylia still saw the indecision in Linna's mind, "You just have to assess the situation and report it to me as you see it. It's not like you'll actually be in charge of anything. A twenty year old girl shouldn't have the responsibility."  
  
Linna sighed. She wasn't going to have a relaxing twenty-first birthday at all. Despite what Sylia said, her adulthood birthday would see her in charge of millions of lives. What a way to become an adult. No pressure at all.  
  
"Okay. I guess I better leave and pack then shouldn't I?"  
  
"Yes. Oh, and get Daley to tag along as well."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The flight from Osaka to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone was a long one, but at least the jet was comfortable and well stocked. Linna spent most of the time going through the countries strife torn history and its connection with Genom with Daley Wong.  
  
"I can't believe this," Genom's new head of the Investigative Branch said, "Genom supplied both the Government and the Rebels with military boomers and weapons."  
  
Linna was chewing on the end of a pen. "What did you expect from people like Mason, Daley?"  
  
"At least we don't have to try and get payments from the Rebels, they always paid upfront. I wouldn't have liked trying to get money from them now." Daley said. He'd read up on the governments military and it wasn't in good shape. The boomers they had were old models and the rest of their equipment was about as good as what the ADP had before most of it was rehired by Sylia Stingray, him and Leon included, to be Genom's new Security Division. The change of working for the enemy had been a real mindbender but it beat going back to the regular police and directing traffic. It was also a mindbender to be working for the head of the Knight Sabres and to have another one of them setting next to him. The cute one too. The world certainly was full of surprises.  
  
"How do you think we should go about it all?" Linna asked him. She was a young girl but had a lot of spirit, self-confidence and drive. And smart enough to know when she needed advice. Or was that just a woman thing, like asking for directions?  
  
"I'd like to get out to the mines right away. They haven't had much time to prepare for us so it'll be better if we give them enough time to prepare their reports. If we wait around we'll just slow them down and not get anything done ourselves."  
  
"Yeah, they must have an IN tray as big as mine are."  
  
"Pardon me?"  
  
"Oh, nothing. Don't mind me." Linna glanced away from Daley's stare. "So many people to look after."  
  
"But less than Tokyo."  
  
"How do you think they'll all react when they find out that they've been sold to a company?" Linna asked.  
  
"And one that perpetuated their troubles?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Daley shrugged and smiled, "We'll find out when we get there."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Freetown's airport would be the best maintained facility in the entire country when Linna and Daley saw the rest of it. The landing was smooth and the jet taxied to the reception that awaited them on the tarmac.  
  
"They're either going to welcome us or arrest us," Daley said looking through a window, Linna's check next to his as they inspected the row of camouflaged boomers lined up in a neat row behind a company of soldiers and a clump of civilians.  
  
"At least we get a red carpet." Linna said. She was nervous and it showed on her face. Was she going to walk down the steps and along the red carpet and accept control over a country, or as Daley had suggested as well; become its captive?  
  
A mobile-stair was attached and the door opened. Outside a band struck up the national anthem.  
  
"After you, Ms Yamazaki." Daley said with an exaggerated bow.  
  
"Why me?"  
  
"Because you're in charge. I'm just Security."  
  
Linna frowned then steeled herself. Daley was right, she was in charge and it wouldn't do if she let everyone know just how frightened she was. "OK." She said to herself and then went to the door, Daley falling in behind with an air of indifference and one hand in his pocket.  
  
A breeze ran over Linna as she stepped out into the open and for the first time in many years she smelt the freshness of the air. Everyone at the reception looked at her. She felt Daley nudge her in the back and she started to walk down the stairs.  
  
"I hope I don't fall," she whispered.  
  
"Don't worry," Daley looked down at her lower half, "I've got your rear."  
  
Linna's eyes widened just a bit.  
  
The red carpet was thick and soft, and every much as exciting as walking on it should be. Linna, Daley, and their teams walked passed the band who continued to repeat the anthem over, Linna wondering if Genom had an anthem or not. She stopped when two men from the cluster of officials and stiffly uniformed officers broke away and walked up to her in a way that reminded her of a race.  
  
"Director Yamazaki, it is an honour to meet Genom's representative and their willingness to look after our country," the official said. Both he and the officer (who had a very large rimmed hat on) held out their hands at the same time.  
  
Linna's heart jumped. She didn't know which one to take first. The mixed civilian and military ruling council was shaky and her choice could create division by the other side.  
  
Daley was thinking the same and saw that Linna hesitated. He was angry with the Africans for trying the political stunt and stepped out from behind Linna and addressed the two leaders. "It is Japanese custom to bow to your superior."  
  
The Officer's eyes flashed. But he and the official withdrew their hands and instead gave attempted bows. Linna bowed back with the proper respect.  
  
"Thank you for your welcome. I didn't except a band," she said.  
  
The official straightened up, and with a side-ways glance to the officer said "We always welcome our Head of State this way. I am Senator Mbouti Xavier and head of the interim government. This is-"  
  
"I am General Django Sawelei and commander of Sierre Leone's Armed Forces." The General answered for himself.  
  
"Pleased to meet you both. I'm Linna Yamazaki and this is my Security Advisor, Daley Wong."  
  
Daley nodded his head.  
  
"I'm glad you came so quickly," Mbouti said. "The rebels don't yet know that our former President has left or of our request to Genom. In our weakened state the country would fall back into anarchy."  
  
Linna was about to respond when the General cut her off.  
  
"If you had given control to the Military after that elected weakling fled the rebels would not be a problem. Our Army is quite capable of handling them."  
  
And on the General's words the squadron of boomers marched out on either side of the reception and faced towards them. They were all armed.  
  
"What is this?" Mbouti gasped.  
  
Linna's heart began to beat fast, was she going to be a captive after all? Her mission a failure before it had even begun.  
  
"Impressive, General." Daley said. "I hope this is just a demonstration,"  
  
The General had a triumphant look and was about to speak but Daley continued, "because you know that Genom build those boomers of yours. And," his hand pressing buttons inside his pocket, "we make sure our products don't do anything that they shouldn't." and he finished the sequence and the boomers turned back into line and walked back to where they had been originally.  
  
"What? How did you do that?" the General gaped.  
  
Daley smiled at him. "Like I said. The boomers belong to us, just like you."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
While their teams were shown around the presidential residence, a large and regal fortress, Linna and Daley were able to get some time alone for a meeting.  
  
"Thanks for your help at the reception. I didn't know what to do." Linna said. She was leaning up against the president's table.  
  
"I said I'd watch your back." Daley replied.  
  
"I thought you said you'd watch my rear?" Linna gave a faint smile and raised eyebrow.  
  
"That too, and it's the better part of my duties."  
  
Linna's other eyebrow rose up to level with the first.  
  
Daley took a seat and folded his hands together. "The General is a concern. I think the reception was a coup attempt and he probably has his technicians going over the boomers to find out how we controlled them. Without secure control over them he wont be so dangerous in the short term."  
  
"How did you do that anyway?" Linna asked, curious.  
  
Daley pulled a vcr remote like object from his pocket. "Sylia had these made up as our first assignment. Every Genom boomer can receive its signal and will obey the commands. It was meant to try and confuse or disable rogue boomers but we haven't tried it out on one yet. She's a smart lady that one."  
  
"Sylia? Yeah. So what do you think the General will do instead?"  
  
"Wait and watch. See what we do and probably try to acquire weapons or boomers from other channels. This little toy is all we've got that'll keep him from taking over, if that is his plan."  
  
"So don't loose it, or let anyone know about it. But he's also got normal soldiers, and all the guns."  
  
"He does. But they might not be reliable. A lot of rebels are former military. And some soldiers may prefer the civilian government. Boomers don't think, they just obey orders."  
  
"Unless they go roque." Linna pointed out.  
  
"There is that. Did you bring along your hardsuit for that alternative?"  
  
"No. I don't have one any more. Nigel's make new ones I guess but I doubt I'll be putting one on again. Too much paperwork to do."  
  
"Wouldn't that be a shame. Knight Sabres retired because of administrative duties."  
  
They laughed. It felt good to laugh.  
  
"So what we do now?" Linna brought the conversation back to topic.  
  
"Go out to the mines and asses them. The General is wary so that plays to our advantage too. He'll cooperate while we can control his boomers."  
  
"They're our boomers remember. Genom owns this country now."  
  
"How did if feel to sign the paper and create history?" Daley asked. An hour ago the transfer of power had taken place. Linna, Mbouti and the General each signed a document that handed over control of Sierra Leone to Genom.  
  
"Very profound."  
  
"I bet."  
  
"I'll leave organizing the trip to you, I'm going to see how my team is working out and what the schedule is."  
  
"Good idea. I also have to see what has to be done to make this country safe again."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Because the roads were unsafe they took gunships to the diamond mines. A flight of three, fully all of Sierra Leone's operational air force, they flew in line-ahead formation with the Genom passengers in the rear craft. Below they passed over green jungle and the occasional village. The interior of the machines was noisy and Spartan. Strapped into Kevlar lined bucket seats, Linna had to shout at Daley for him to hear. "Pretty isn't it?" she yelled.  
  
"What is?" Daley shouted back. Linna pointed. "Yeah. I hope to get back down to the ground soon."  
  
Linna laughed, the sound ripped from her throat as soon as she opened it. Daley's face was turning as green as the canopy of the trees. While flying in a hardsuit was a lot more comfortable, she never had the time to look at her surroundings. Not that a concrete jungle was anywhere near as nice as a real one.  
  
The gunships landed at a forward base where they would wait and be refueled. A large cleared hill the base was patrolled by boomers. A Major escorted them to the jeeps he had waiting for them for the road trip to the mines. The gunships didn't have adequate space to land in the terrain there. The Major was professional and courteous and during the half hour drive on poor roads explained the situation with the rebels.  
  
"The rebels don't care about the country. They only want the mines and a route to transport what they dig so they can sell it. They have not been active lately. My patrols have been in no combats for weeks. But that will change when they hear that the president has gone and there are also rumours that they have hired mercenaries."  
  
The convoy of two jeeps and three armoured personal carriers (APCs) rumbled into the mine's facility, another military base. It was heavily protected and Linna could see machine guns, rocket launchers and other weapons everywhere. It reminded her of a documentary about the twentieth century war in Vietnam she'd seen during school.  
  
"This base looks like it can protect itself." Daley commented.  
  
"The soldiers here are good. But they are also tired and have been away from their families for a long time. If the rebels attacked it with all their forces I don't think we could hold the mines," the Major said.  
  
They looked around the base and met the Chief Engineer. In one of the jeeps they traveled to the nearest mine which was at work.  
  
"A shipment of diamonds will travel back to the capital with you today. There your company will see how rich these mines are," the Engineer said with some level of anger. That he wasn't happy about his country being sold. It was going to be Linna's job to make people like him realize that Genom's control would be beneficial for Sierra Leone.  
  
"Is this the biggest mine?" Daley asked.  
  
"No." the Engineer replied, "There is another a few kilometers further up."  
  
"I'd like to see that one."  
  
"As you wish, but I have work to do here."  
  
They returned to the jeeps, the Major leading the way, and they delved into the jungle with trees that blocked out the sun. The road was rough, pitching up and down and started to turn as they rounded a hill. That was when the ambush was sprung and the lead jeep exploded as a whooshing rocket slammed into its side and detonated. The jeep flew into the air and rolled over while off the ground and crashed into the trees on the other side of the slope.  
  
"Drive!" Daley shouted. Linna was paralyzed, unable to take her eyes off the destroyed jeep. She couldn't see any bodies.  
  
The jeep raced forward and beyond where the first was struck. Angry bees snapped past them, small bolts of laser like light, or hit the side of the jeep. Daley shouted to get down and Linna curled herself into a ball. The soldier next to her groaned and jerked to the side and she felt hot wetness on her cheek. She screamed.  
  
The driver turned off the road and into the jungle. He weaved the machine between trees and over brush as the gunfire exploded bark and leaves around them. A front tyre was punctured and they veered into a tree and crashed into it. The driver grabbed his gun and jumped out of the ruined vehicle.  
  
"C'mon Linna, lets get out of here." Daley urged.  
  
The trio ran through the jungle and then came out of it suddenly as a creek ran across their path. Water splashing up to their knees they surged through.  
  
"Get down!" Linna warned and pushed Daley in the back as fire caused the water to fountain about them. She saw their driver pitch over backwards. The firing ceased.  
  
"Get up slowly and raise your hands," a voice commanded from the jungle.  
  
Dripping wet, Linna and Daley did so. Men in fatigues stepped out of the jungle with guns pointed at them. Most were black. The one who spoke to them wasn't.  
  
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two chinamen, well, one chinaman and one chinashiela. Not too shabby either." The rebel commander said. "A good piece of booty for this raid," and he ordered his men to tie their wrists, which they did eagerly.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"What do you mean they've been captured?!" Sylia exploded.  
  
Senator Mbouti on the other end of the videoconference screen blanched. "Th- the rebels must have been waiting for a shipment of diamonds and they ran into them instead. This is terrible, they just arrived. we will do everything we can to recover them."  
  
"Yes you will." Sylia snapped and ended the communication with a stab of a finger. She looked around for something to throw - anything - but there was nothing. Instead she beat her fists on the reverberating table before throwing herself back into her chair. "Dammit Linna! How did you get yourself into trouble this time? And Daley, I thought you had more sense."  
  
She spun around on the chair to face the smog grey sky beyond her window. Outside the air was still and the pollution hung thick over the industrial sprawl.  
  
Counting her options, Sylia found that there weren't many. Negotiations with the rebels would destroy Genom's chance of acquiring the mines smoothly, she'd been informed about the General's action at the reception by one of Daley's team and knew that the General could already be planning a coup while the administration was in turmoil. She doubted that if the Sierra Leoneans could mount a credible rescue operation, it was more than likely that either or both her captured employees and friends would end up killed. And they were both so young. The only other option left to her was.  
  
Sylia made the call.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
They had been taken to the rebels encampment, a commandeered village next to jungle where they had seen armoured vehicles and alarmingly: boomers. Daley hadn't got a good view to see what type of boomers they were, or how many, before he and Linna were hustled into one of the larger dwellings to face the rebel commander.  
  
"On your knees," a rebel each smacked the butt of their rifles into the Genom employee's backs, driving them down. Linna cried out and Daley grunted.  
  
"Goddamn bastard!" Daley growled to be rewarded with another blow across his face. He spat blood out onto the dirt ground where it congealed.  
  
"Daley!" Linna gasped. She wanted to reach out to see how he was but the menacing black rebels stayed her place. When he tried to wink at her that he was okay, her heart almost stopped. She hoped he wouldn't try anything 'heroic' or mucho again, and wished she was in her hardsuit.  
  
Sturdy combat boots walked between them, crisp fatigues tucked in tight. The captives looked up to see the rebel commander turn and inspect them.  
  
"No more hitting, or they won't be able to talk," he said and the rebels laughed.  
  
The commander's face was in shadow caused by his own mane of bushy brown hair. He stood with legs apart and arms crossed and regarded his prisoners intently. He was white beneath the sun's tanning light. He looked from Daley to Linna, then back to Daley.  
  
"Names?" he said with a thick accent neither of them could recognize.  
  
Daley stared back defiantly and an angry rebel raised up high his gun to ready it for the strike down.  
  
"No!" Linna yelled, trying to get up.  
  
"Linna stop!" Daley tried to warn before the hard metal stock of the rifle crashed into the back of his skull and showering his vision with sparks.  
  
Linna too was hit again, the blow more powerful to her mind than any wound she had suffered at the hands of a boomer. The pain too was intense, the gun crunching down onto her left collarbone and she fell into a heap along side Daley. As well as they could they cradled each other.  
  
"Linna then for the woman. What is yours foolish man? I won't ask again, and if you don't you'll see and hear a lot worse happen to your slant eyed friend." The commander gave his cruel command.  
  
"His name is Daley. Daley Wong, and I'm Linna Yamazaki. We're both employees of the Genom Corporation and -," Linna coughed, "you should release us immediately."  
  
"Genom do you say?" the commander looked surprised. It was hard for Linna to tell because she saw that he had only one eye, the other covered by a black patch. "That is interesting. Tell me why two Genom employees would be here in this backwater country?"  
  
"The government owes us money." Linna gave only enough of the truth as was required.  
  
"And that would explain your trip to the mines." The commander smiled. His smile was full of even, pearly teeth. "We steal from the minds to fund our war, while you want to steal it go pay your luxurious wages. How much the same you and I are then."  
  
"What should we do with them, Sir?" the rebel who had captured them said.  
  
"Lock them up where they can't cause trouble. Their company will find out what has happened to them and they will want them back. After a little negotiation I'm sure we can acquire some new assault boomers, don't you think?"  
  
The subordinate grinned, "That would be just fine by me, Sir. Okay lads, take 'em away."  
  
And rough hands lifted them from the ground, Linna gasping with the pain to her shoulder, and they were taken to their makeshift cell.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The cargo planned landed at Freetown's military runway, which was also located at the cities airport. There was no visible reception and the plane taxied to a maintenance hanger where the doors closed noisily behind it. Outside the hanger were many trucks and soldiers, despite orders on the contrary from on-high. The few staff that worked at the civilian airport (it didn't see much traffic) gave cursory glances to the closed hanger but really didn't give it much thought.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Level B-10 was where the Cyber-espionage Division of Genom resided. Made up of a few ex-ADP staffers and Genom sysops, the floor was in a constant state of dullness, the need for secrecy of each of the skilled computer users going right down to how much light there was in a room or corridor. Not even the fellow in the next office (everyone had an enclosed office) should be able to see another's monitor.  
  
Sylia, who always felt the approach of a migraine by being at the underground floor, stood and watched over the shoulder of the diminutive blonde Nene Romanova as she, in he own words, 'worked her magic'. Like the incessant rain, the former-APD dispatcher's cum Knight Sabre cum Genom CyberOperative #001 fingers covered the 256 key keyboard faster than the eye could follow.  
  
"I'm adjusting the satellite's camera right now, Sylia," Nene said, face backlite by the glow of her terminal and the streams of alphanumeric characters that rolled down and across it.  
  
Standing over the other shoulder, Chief Roland, the overall Head of Security, blinked his eyes so they wouldn't start tearing. While the aged and gruff former policeman had a real title, everyone still called him Chief (of his ADP days), or Roland if they were on closer terms. While Sylia found it quite amusing to be standing along side a former enemy, Chief Roland was of a more practical nature: he had a job, and a darn good one. His new boss had let him bring along all of his best men and women, even considering Nene until he had found out, shockingly, who she really was. There wouldn't be any more dispatching for that little lady, at all.  
  
"How long will you have before they realize the satellite's been put off course?" Sylia asked.  
  
"We should have a few minutes, I hope," Nene answered. "I've covered my trail pretty well so no one will suspect us."  
  
A few months back, Roland would have said something about that, but no longer. Nene was a ghost and had helped foil an attempt by the Japanese Army no-doubt, to steal an idle batch of military grade boomers while Sylia was still struggling to take full control over the company.  
  
While Nene worked at the controls, Sylia asked: "Is everything else ready?"  
  
Roland nodded. "Got word before I came down. As soon as the satellite images are transmitted the ball will start rolling."  
  
"The ball was thrown well before us knowing," Sylia said flatly. How dare anyone take anything from her!  
  
"Got it!" Nene proclaimed triumphantly and the plasma wall screen opposite them flickered to life. On it was part of Western Africa at night. Along the coast were pinpricks of civilized light, the rest a blackness. "I'm zooming in on their trackers." And the image changed, rushing inwards. Nene toyed with the controls and settings until she settled over the target spot and cleaned up the image and switched over to infra-red.  
  
There was a village of about a dozen mud and thatch buildings near the edge of a clearing. The clearing was full of parallel lines of farmland. A few jeeps and trucks were about and the motion of sentries as they walked. Some held cigarettes. "It'll be cold at night," Sylia said. Nene moved the image around.  
  
"Which one are they in?" Roland asked.  
  
Simultaneously, Sylia and Linna pointed to a small round hut. "That one."  
  
Roland pushed down on the secure communications link he had to Sierra Leone. "You getting this?" he asked to the person on the other end, thousands of kilometers away.  
  
"Yep," came back the weighty reply. "Nene, can you check the forest. They might have hidden weapons there or more men."  
  
"Okay." Nene chimed, humming, and the image shifted. The speakers concerns were founded.  
  
"They look like boomers, don't they?" Sylia said.  
  
"Six, no, eight." Nene counted. "Those two have low batteries."  
  
"Got it." Said from another country.  
  
The image started to go grainy.  
  
"Damn, they've found out, Sylia. What should I do?"  
  
"You can close the channel. We got what we needed."  
  
"I hope it was enough, there could be an awful lot of trouble in those trees and huts. Pictures don't tell a man's fighting spirit." Roland warned.  
  
"You worry too much old man. Sylia, we'll have them out by morning."  
  
"Good luck." Sylia said.  
  
"Yeah Leon-poo, you bring them back or you'll answer to me!" Nene shouted.  
  
Sylia cut the link before the angry response came back.  
  
"Now what?" Nene slumped back into her chair.  
  
"We wait."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
A small candle provided their only means of illumination but it was enough to make out the dark blue and purple bruises that they each wore.  
  
"I think the bone might be broken," Linna lightly prodded her collar. She winced and was glad she couldn't see just how bad if felt. She'd received her fare share of bruises from being bashed around by rouge boomers, but then she could have gone to her home, had a hot shower and retired to her soft bed. There were sacks of UN AID grain in their circular cell, but the nest of weevils kept her away. Her hair was a mess enough already, she had tried to joke to Daley.  
  
For his part Daley had a stiff neck and one side of his face had swelled where the butt of a rifle had struck him. Checking his teeth, he found them all still firmly in place, and while his face was fortunately numb, speaking was difficult. So he stayed quiet, moping. His first time out and he'd blown it. Got himself and his young charge captured by a force who would barter then back to Genom, or when they found out that Genom was in charge of the country now, probably hold them hostage or worse execute them. Thus ended would be his career, and back to his father's farm it would be. If he survived. The worst of it was Linna and the pain she was enduring and what his might conjured up of her having to endure in the future. It was a mistake to bring her along. Stupid. They should have waited until the security was better.  
  
Linna's own spirits were diminished because of Daley's withdrawal. They'd spoken only a few words, to make sure the other was all right. That had been it. Through the candles flickering flame she watched him sit hunched over, arms around knees, facing away from her. So she wouldn't see the terrible bruise that marred his face. She wanted to talk, to say something, anything, to pass the time and stop the depression rising. Each moment without words spoken meant a moment thinking about what could happen to them next.  
  
She rubbed her face with her good arm and it came away dirty. She imagined herself with a layer of dirt and grime. What would elegant Sylia say to that? Could she loose her job over looking so bad? She had to laugh, and it felt good.  
  
"What are you laughing about?" Daley asked through lips that barely moved.  
  
"How my face looks, it must be so-," she stopped. Her face was only dirty. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Nothing a month of surgery wont fix, if we survive." Daley said with melancholy.  
  
"Sylia'll get us out. She wont leave us here." Linna responded with conviction.  
  
Daley shrugged and turned away again.  
  
"And until the, you've got to watch my rear, right?"  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"My rear. Y'know?"  
  
"It is a nice rear," Daley said with a trace of lightness.  
  
"On a scale of one to ten?" Linna asked.  
  
"Oh, maybe a nine." Daley let himself go.  
  
"Only a nine?" Linna tried to sound chiding.  
  
"Can't give you a ten sorry, Sylia would fire me."  
  
Linna had to agree. "She's got a nice rear too."  
  
"I wouldn't have thought you'd notice,"  
  
Linna blushed furiously. "Uh, well, she does like to dress flashy and show off," she stammered.  
  
"You should too."  
  
"I.?"  
  
Daley held up a finger to his lips for quiet and Linna obeyed. They heard footfalls on dried grass coming towards them.  
  
The lock was stripped away from the hut's door and it opened. Through stood two men, behind them the twilight of the sky. One pointed a gun towards them and the other placed two bowels on the ground. "Eat." And the door was shut and locked again.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
For the brief fleeting moment that Linna saw the Sea of Stars, Leon had been staring at them for an hour from the troop compartment of the same gunship that had taken his two friends to their fate. Out there, somewhere under the night sky was the longing his heart.  
  
"Coming up to the drop zone in five," Lieutenant Hagura said over the intercom. He was in the lead gunship a hundred metres in front.  
  
Snapped out his reverie, Leon pushed down the faceplate over his eyes. "Get ready people. It's only three klicks from the drop point to the target site. Check your systems and power up your Grasshoppers," he said, looking around at the four other RRT members that were with him in the gunship, knowing that another five each were in the other two airborne machines. Each of them fully enclosed in an armoured body-double exoskeleton. How armoured he and his men would find out soon enough. The Grasshoppers his men had christened the suits, after the jump packs built into the suits backs. The two women on his team preferred to call theirs Praying Mantis'. A name deserved.  
  
He waited out the remaining time in silence, thinking of her no more.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Sir," a Caucasian rebel, mercenary, entered his commander's hut and saluted.  
  
"What is it Jones?" the commander asked.  
  
"We've picked up three helicopters on radar."  
  
"Heading?"  
  
"Not towards us Sir, but they aren't far away."  
  
"Worried, Jones?"  
  
"Only if they know where here, Sir. Or about the hostages."  
  
The commander nodded and stood. He reached to get his pistol belt and put it on. "Keep watching them and alert the sentries. The copters wont attack us alone, no ground troops could get here so quickly. They're probably reconnoitering."  
  
"Yes Sir." Jones saluted and left.  
  
The commander sat back down again, one hand resting on his pistol, reassuringly.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Dawho Impi pulled back a long satisfying draught on his unfiltered cigarette. The hot smoke traveled down his lungs, filling them, until he breathed out a ghostly mist in exhalation and smiled.  
  
He didn't get to breath again, at all, as a rubber coated gauntlet wrapped around his face and over his mouth and nose, another pressure against the back of his neck and then with a little snap his neck was broken and his assailant laid him gently down to the uncultivated ground.  
  
Lieutenant Hagura signaled back the all-clear and a skirmish line of bulky black humanoid shapes revealed themselves from the jungle. Five hundred meters away was the village, and on the other side a platoon of boomers and rebels.  
  
Quickly his team marched towards the village.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Leon watched Hagura's approach from afar. With normal vision he wouldn't be able to see the suits at all. They were also heat- and magnetic-shielded further degrading other optics. He watched on a specific channel designed to let each wearer know where the other was, a tactical map on his HUD also displayed the other fourteen dots of the RRT. Shortly Hagura's men would reach their line and then Samuels' team would launch the ruckus. The rebel's wouldn't know what hit them.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Jessica Lweollen was twenty-three years old and felt invincible. In her Praying Mantis suit - let the boys call them 'girly' names like Grasshopper - she crept through the jungle undergrowth, amazed at how stealthy she could be in what was a tin can. A tin can she was mightily proud of however. Beside her in open line were the rest of the team she belonged to; Samuels her Sergeant, Konrad, Ishikawa and Asahi. All of them had been ADP frontliners and had operated a CaseSuit during their time. Like the other's she'd followed Chief Roland to work for the Enemy: Genom who produced the boomers they were sworn to destroy (or die trying as the case usually turned out to be) who was now run by another arch-foe: The Knight Sabres. Most of the others didn't believe her, that Miss Sylia Stingray, was a Knight Sabre but she did. How else did Genom suddenly produce the Praying Mantis suit she wore now? A CaseSuit was nothing compared to it and it wasn't like a bulky boomer either. It just had to be a different kind of suit like the Knight Sabres wore. And having seen how combat effective they were, this mission was going to be a thrill.  
  
Two suits down, Jessica's Sergeant got ready. Twenty metres now to the idle line of boomer. Everything was going as planned.  
  
Therefore when the rebel stepped out from behind a tree directly in his path, hitching up his pants as he did so, gun over a shoulder, Samuels got the surprise of his life.  
  
The rebel for his part stared in complete shock at the blocky humanoid that was only a meter away. He said; "What are you doing here, boomer?" in his native tongue, and with heart starting to slow down, turned away but saw another boomer a few meters from the other. He started to look back.  
  
Samuels rushed in and punched the rebel in the face, heard a crack. "Let's go!" he ordered his team and they sprinted forwards.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Jones shrugged as he watched the radar points that were the government helicopters flying away. They had stopped for a few minutes, enough time to drop off a recon party that might look for their base during the day. He decided to go and tell the commander what had happened and then call it a night.  
  
He stepped out from the radar and communications hut - it had a small satellite dish poking through the roof - when he heard a whoosh and then felt a hot pressure wave hit him in the back and lift him off the ground. Tumbling in mid-air he saw the hut explode in a splinter of thatch. It actually looked very pretty.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The commander was on his feet as soon as he heard the explosion. Had the copters attacked? Why, and how did they get so close without a warning? From his hut he rushed out into the brightening night.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"What was that?" Linna shouted above the dying roar.  
  
"Something blew up," Daley tried to yell back. He scuttled over to the wall where there were cracks. "They're running around." Linna pressed up against his back, trying to look over his shoulder.  
  
Then the firing started.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Jessica dropped down onto one knee and raised her right arm. Mounted along the forearm above the wrist was a HVAP machine gun. The ammunition feed ran along her arm to her side and she could actually feel the bullets run down the length to be ejected on hot gas as she mentally gave the command to fire.  
  
Bark and leaves and twigs filled the air as her weapon whirred and spat out a stream of chaos. Three rebels flew back with spread arms and sparks erupted all over the chassis of a combat boomer. Ricochets flew off into the sky, falling stars in reverse.  
  
The boomer then blew apart in a ball of flame and smoke, metal arcing through the air, as a well aimed anti-tank missile from Asahi's shoulder launcher struck true.  
  
Through the gap Jessica leapt and she sought out more targets and poured fire into them.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Leon watched from the background as the assault took place. After the initial shock the rebels reacted well and regrouped near the wood line. They had five remaining boomers and it was the first time he saw them in action. Sprouting weapons and heavy armour the turned on his first assault team and started to force them back. The rebels used the boomers as protection and fired from around their legs. He heard Samuel's give the order and his team pulled back in a leap-frog tactic. They kept up fire to make sure the rebels didn't come too close or too fast. But they followed and in after a few minutes Leon could see them passing across his front and into his ambush.  
  
"Just like hunting rogue boomers," he said to no one in particular, and then "Fire!"  
  
Two of the boomers exploded with terrific displays of pyrotechnics right after.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Okay, that's our signal, lets move in." Hagura ordered and his team flashed into the village with their jump packs. "Section 1, secure the hostages. 2, covering fire."  
  
His quintet quickly split and went to work. The target hut known, Section 1 rushed towards it while Section 2 shot down or drove back any rebels that remained in the village.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The Grasshoppers didn't come through the door, they ripped a section of the wall right out with clawed hands. Linna and Daley stared at them in shock.  
  
"We've come to rescue you,"  
  
"The Grasshoppers." Daley said in awe.  
  
Hands were held out and taken.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Riddled with bullets the rebel flopped onto the earth and rapidly stained it with his blood.  
  
The commander cursed. He was pinned down by two small boomers that were firing accurately and he only had a handful of men. The rest were in the jungle behind him where he could hear a very intense battle being waged. But that battle was an illusion. Here, now, was the real fight. The attackers were after his hostages and they would get away unless he did something about it.  
  
"Fire at them fools!" he snarled to the huddling rebels. Looking around he saw a hut that hadn't been destroyed and safe from fire. In it he knew were weapons. Heavy ones. He sprinted over.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"This way, this way!" Hagura motioned and shielded by his men, Linna and Daley sprinted towards him.  
  
Time then slowed down when Hagura saw a man thirty meters away step around a corner from outside a hut and kneel down, a long tube held level over his shoulder. Hagura knew that he couldn't fire in time or that his men would get to cover before the rocket would strike. Leaning forward he fires his jump pack at the horizontal and shot forward, screaming.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The commander depressed the RPG's trigger and rocked back as the long dart like missile popped out, seemed to hang before his eyes, then race towards the enemy on a jet of gas.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Hagura aimed right at the approaching missile twisted around killing his pack. Visored faces looked at him in wonder and then there was a tremendous roar and he felt himself flying again, this time up and back the way he came, flame all about him.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The commander kneeled, stunned at the suicidal bravery of the boomer. Then the other boomers, how advanced they must be to move so fluidly and quickly, turned on him and started to fire. Retreat the better part of valour, the commander retired from the lost battle and slipping into a jeep, drove away into the dawning horizon.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Code Green, Code Green." Leon heard over his com. He let out a sigh of relief, the hostages had been freed and were on their way to the Rally Point where the helicopters would be waiting for them.  
  
"All units disengage and head for the RP."  
  
He fired a last burst just to keep the enemies heads down before turning and joining the other trails of light.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia slumped back in her one-hundred-and-forth-level office chair. She was relieved that the operation had succeeded and Linna and Daley rescued with minimal loss. She was satisfied with the performance of her generic hardsuits, but she was not satisfied with herself. Opening and closing drawers she searched for the glass bottle that was not there, the brown fluid within it. Frustrated, growling she slammed a drawer shut and scrapped her hands through her silver tresses.  
  
"Dammit Father! You're dead and yet your legacy remains. How many people will die because of what you created? How much suffering do we have to endure?" And she buried her face in her hands, hid her head behind her hair and tried to cry, but no tears would come.  
  
Legacies: The End  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Notes: This story, and the Machinations 2041 world as a whole will be very different to what BGC fans are used to. This is for a simple reason: It's time for a change. BGC, Crash and 2040 all operated in the same manner, centering on the Knight Sabres, their suits, and the battle against Genom.  
  
After 2040, Genom would be effectively finished as a company. Look at what happened to Enron. Genom is much bigger but it also has allowed a worldwide catastrophe to take place and Japan and other world governments want someone to blame and litigate. Also, who would want to buy Genom's products any more? The stock price tanked in short order (I've witnessed the dotcom bubble burst first hand, twice) allowing Sylia to snatch the stock up and buy a controlling portion of the ruined company - because that's what analysts and employees would have thought. Stock holders handed their shares over to Sylia, glad to be rid of them. Engineers and Scientists were headhunted by other companies and put to work building boomers of their own, allowing for a rapid proliferation of boomer constructing companies and an effective enlarging of the unsolved rogue problem. The problem that Sylia wants to stop, and she believes that by running Genom she has the best chance to do it. The Knight Sabres can't fight a global campaign, but she enlisted them and the remnants of the ADP to her cause. It's an audacious plan and right with peril, many forces wanting her to fail. Through the minefield of world politics, business and terrorism, Sylia and Co must make a teetering Genom as successful as it once was; a monopoly boomer producer. It the only way she can control the dangerous future.  
  
So has begun SurfingSpider's Machinations, a series of expanded out scenarios much like Tom Clancy's Op-Centre and Powerplays novels. 


	2. Public Relations Internal Affairs

Public Relations / Internal Affairs  
  
Sylia Stingray, CEO and Chairwoman of the Board of Genom Corporation sat at the head of the boardroom meeting table with a pained expression on her face. Diagoro Itto, the head of the Marketing Department was one of the few directors she wasn't able to get rid of when she took power; the large spectacle wearing thin man had been a favourite of the late Chairmain Quincy and still held considerable power in the corporation. It was a well known secret that he didn't like her and was the leader of a clique of other old timers who wanted to get rid of her and return to the already nostalgic good old days of world power politics and a monopoly market. Too bad reality was well beyond his pipe dream, but it was a dream that he persisted with nonetheless. Like the speech he was giving now.  
  
"Two thirds of the Scientists and Engineers that left Genom after the terrorist strike did not put in their resignation papers. I say we should sue the companies that stole them, and the employees for Breach Of Contract and selling company secrets. Boomer technology is ours and we can't let upstart Americans and Europeans steal our markets, or those wet nosed ASEANs rip off our quality products with the junk they make." Itto pounded the table with his boney hand as he named each adversary.  
  
"Itto," Sylia started, she didn't want to let any of her anger or frustration show through in her words, despite it being openly broadcast on her face, "We have enough legal problems as it is and not enough money to fight them all. Money is our main concern and to get it we must sell our product and that is your job. Sales have plummeted and contracts cancelled. Now," Sylia held up a hand, "before you blame the 'terrorist strike', I realize that many cancellations are out of our control and you and your Department are doing the best you can. You have to keep doing that and with all your attention. I - we, are counting on you. We need the money, no credit terms, straight up COD. Can you do it?"  
  
A mix of being offended and pride played over Itto's face. Pride one. "Of course Chairwomen. I'm already implementing an aggressive sales campaign and instructing our Reps. The Japanese Government has put out a tender for the clean up of Tokyo and I assure you we will get it."  
  
"Good." Sylia nodded. "Any other business?"  
  
"Yes Madam Chairwoman," Candace LeCourviere, the new Public Relations head said, "The Tokyo City Council is having a fundraiser ball on Friday for city reconstruction and relief for the dispossessed. I think it would be a good idea for Genom to attend. It would also help Mr. Itto's chances at getting the tender with the city and improve Genom's PR image as a whole."  
  
Sylia agreed. Genom's PR was as bad as its stock price. Leon's broadcast of the voomer plague during Galatea's wake of the Dragon Line - which still scarred Tokyo's skyline - had been seen by almost every western government and had been a huge thorn on her attempts to rebuild. It was lucky most of the ordinary populace didn't get ahold of the transmission, or the News agencies. If they did, Genom would be finished and so her best chance to solve the boomer problem once and for all.  
  
"Get an invitation or buy tickets then. You and Itto will attend." Sylia gave her answer.  
  
Candace looked over at Itto who regarded the play with a little boredom, "I think it best that the Chairwoman should attend as well. It could actually be counter productive if you weren't there."  
  
Candace was right again, Sylia knew but she still tried to protest. "I've got far too much to do already. The rest of my week is over booked with legal and product meetings."  
  
"I concur with Ms. LeCourviere." Itto said with a sage like bow, almost as if he had spent much time in deliberation, "While Genom has taken a big hit, you Sylia still have a lot of good will from your late Father. And you also do know how to get a deal. Together the tender is assured."  
  
"It's settled then, I'll get invitations for you both right away." Candace smiled her rosy French smile.  
  
Slyia smiled scarlet is return, yet wondering why she felt that she had just been ambushed.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
After the four hour long board meeting, which thankfully started at the beginning of the day, Sylia headed down to the R&D Division on the sixty-to- eighty levels of the towering skyscraper located on the fringe of the Osaka- Kobe business district. The elevator doors swished open, almost as comical as the late night sci-fi shows she watched while going over reports, and she walked onto a busy shop floor. She felt a pang of loss of her own small business, the Silky Doll, whenever she walked through the activity that in a way reminded her of a busy sales day. She found Nigel in his office along with Nene.  
  
"Hi, Sylia!" Nene chimed like a cookooclock.  
  
"Morning Nene, what are you up here for?" Sylia asked. She and Nigel just nodded to each other. She felt loss their too as their relationship had distanced. Running Genom had also played a major role. There was never any time they could spent together. She also believed that Nigel didn't agree with what she was doing, but went along with it because he always did. And for Mackey as well.  
  
"The usual Sylia, you know, Makcey and stuff." Nene looked down and shrugged.  
  
"Any progress?"  
  
"No." Nigel answered.  
  
"But we're working hard on it." Nene said with forced bravado.  
  
Sylia patted her on the shoulder. "It'll work out Nene. You'll solve the problem."  
  
"I hope so," Nene looked away.  
  
Mackey, her younger brother, just like Galatea had been her sister, was a boomer and almost human. To Nigel and Nene and herself, Mackey was human but that didn't make up for the fact that he was different and those differences would become increasingly manifest as the friends around him aged.  
  
"Keep working on it. But don't forget your other duties too either Nene."  
  
"I won't Sylia." Nene responded blandly and walked out.  
  
"You should ease up on her." Nigel said.  
  
"If she doesn't have work to do she'll just get more depressed and useless to everyone." Sylia replied with tiredness in her own voice. "But that's not why I'm here."  
  
"The S-series boomers are nearing trials. We've had some programming problems but they'll be fixed on time."  
  
"And the trigger?" Sylia asked in apprehension.  
  
"We won't really know until we need to use it wont we?" Nigel looked her in the eye.  
  
Sylia could only stand the glare for a few seconds before having to look away. She hugged her arms and looked out Nigel's window at the busy floor. The trigger would have to do, it was the best she could come up with in the small amount of time and not halt boomer production. She had told Itto the truth, Genom needed the money and was doomed without it.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Leon McNicols oversaw the return of two of his RRT squads as they disembarked from the cargo jet and unloaded their equipment. His chest was swelled with pride for his team and what they had done. It was also good to rescue smart-arse Daley for a change and he'd given his old friend a fair going-over for getting himself captured, and his charge too, in the first place. 'You should have known better' he'd slapped Daley on the shoulder in his hospital bed, being his usual optimistic and buffoonish self so Daley would forget the wounds and smile. He'd set out with fifteen and they were all alive. One squad was still in Sierra Leone providing the waif of a woman (and Knight Sabre he reminded himself), Linna Yamazaki, who was in charge of the whole country because they'd sold themselves to Genom. Leon, once a public servant and cop, didn't think that corporations should own countries but Sierra Leone was a messed up place and Genom with its new boss would take better care of it than the criminals who had run it in the past.  
  
Lt. Hagura came over to him and saluted.  
  
"No need for formalities like that when its just us, Haruga." Leon said.  
  
Haruga shrugged, and winced a little.  
  
"Still stiff, eh?" Leon smiled.  
  
"Taking a rocket hit to the chest would stiffen you up to you lummox." Haruga rubbed his chest where a Sierra Leone rebel fired RPG had hit him. His Grasshopper powered suit had a bit dent in it and black burn marks all over. "Damn lucky our lady boss got 'em for us or I'd be fertilizer in that damn poor place."  
  
"And I'd have to find a new Second Squad leader. You know how I hate having to give interviews." Leon motioned for Haruga to follow and they started walking to the cars that waited to take them back to HQ.  
  
"The Grasshoppers, what do you know about 'em? They sure ain't like the crap we had in the ADP or what the army's got." Haruga asked.  
  
Leon shrugged. "Bout as much as you."  
  
"C'mon, Leon. You gotta know more than that, you're close with the lady boss."  
  
"I wish," Leon replied, actually in negative. He wished he didn't know Sylia Stingray at all. Had never met the woman. He considered himself a man not afraid of many things, but Sylia Stingray was one of them and high up on the list. She was dangerous and a genius. Leon had a good idea that his team's Grasshoppers were like the hardsuits her Knight Sabres had worn, and he knew that they had been boomers. If he told his men and women of his command that, there was no way they'd get back in again. His men and women liked the suits and they had performed exceptionality during the hostage crises and easily routed the rebel force and destroyed their combat boomers. He was also grateful for the chance to be involved in controlling boomers again, instead of finding himself relegated back to the regular national police, and boy had they make a fair ruckus when Sylia hired almost the entire ADP force. Thankfully the Unions had been on her side because she also didn't fire any Genom Union workers even though everyone knew the company was on the ropes. Sylia sure was one hell of a lady, Leon had to give her that. Even if he did suspect her motives, her Father had invented boomers after all. But it was good then that he worked for her. Didn't that mean he could keep a close watch? It'd be good to use his old detective skills again.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto was seated in a leather lounge in his expensively decked-out office, which also like the other director suites had a bathroom and bedroom attached to it. His two lead subordinates were in other chairs and a human tea lady was just leaving after pouring them all a cup. Before the so- called terrorist strike, the tea lady would have been a boomer, but Itto didn't want to be near any of the things. In fact there wasn't a single boomer outside of R&D and Production in the entire building. His almighty boss Stingray didn't like them around either.  
  
The tea lady left and Itto began his tirade.  
  
"It's a disgrace that we, the people who built this company and turned it into the power that it is - was - will be again, have to listen and take orders from a girl. Just because her father was the famous Doctor Stingray that doesn't give her the right to order us around and ignore our experienced advice."  
  
His lackeys nodded and hummed and hah'd in agreement.  
  
"Without firm leadership Genom will crumble. In the hands of a girl we are doomed. I mean, what are we doing in a dirty African country? They owe us money so we should take it. It is a waste of time and resources to try and run the worthless place and its ugly people. They aren't even Japanese!  
  
"Genom is on the brink, friends. We must act and quickly to save this great Company, the very symbol of Japan! The girl must be removed and a real leader put in her place. Only then will Genom return to its rightful place as leader of boomer technology."  
  
The lackeys agreed vigorously.  
  
"What do we do then?" one of them asked.  
  
Itto smiled. His men were so loyal. They would follow him all the way to victory.  
  
"She has the trust of her subordinates, outsiders the lot of them. She make think herself secure with them around but outside is a different story. She must be made to look incompetent to the rest of the board members. They must be force to act to remove her."  
  
"But she has the controlling votes, she can veto any change."  
  
"If the board is unanimous against her then she will have to step aside, voluntarily for by force."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Candace LeCourviere looked at herself in the mirror of her office's bedroom. In a sharp cut and snug cream suit and skirt she decided that she looked just perfect. As a French woman she considered her dress sense to be immaculate, along with her manner of speech and manner of walking. She was especially proud of the way she walked. Heads would turn, mesmerized in the sway of her hips like snakes charmed and her the charmer. The feel of all their eyes on her made her feel incredibly powerful, and she liked to have power. And to use it. Power was a better lover than a man, both came to her willingly, both served her willingly, but power lasted and grew and never bored her. Men would eventually.  
  
It was little surprise that she was drawn to the light of Public Relations like a butterfly (she would never consider herself a disgusting short lived moth). A world of visual and glamour, she was a master of it. A look, a word, and power was obtained. She had worked for many important French companies and even a political party, the face of them more than the faces of their real leaders, but Genom was the biggest fish she had caught and would transform to make her wishes true. Even Sylia Stringray, a women in arms - Candace hated the glass ceiling and boys club of the political and corporate world - was overcome and infatuated with her charm. She didn't think any less of Sylia because of it, woman of all kinds were drawn to her, the vapid and smart ones, the weak and the powerful. They all wanted to share in her success and to bask in the light and beauty she radiated. It was a given that Sylia would hire her as Genom's PR guru. What other choice did she have?  
  
None at all, Candace smiled at her reflection. No matter how smart they were or self-confident, they would always want to be with her. Never the other way around. And they wouldn't care because she would do her job well and they would benefit. Seeing Genom as her biggest challenge, the level of prestige she would get for smarting up its tarnished image would be seen as a miracle and then there would be no doubt in the world that she was its Queen and all would be in awe of her.  
  
"Too bad," she shrugged, still smiling, and then blew a kiss to the mirror.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia retired to her home on the one hundred and sixth floor at eight in the evening. Exhausted she changed into a robe and avoided eye contact with the stack of reports she would have to at least skim through before she went to sleep. Henderson had left a meal ready to be heated in the electric oven and she turned it and the timer on. In a champagne glass she poured some orange juice - if she wasn't allowed to have alcohol anymore she was damn still sure doing to drink from alcohol glasses! - and turned the small TV in the kitchen on to the cable news services.  
  
The news of her take over of Sierra Leone had broken two days ago and the mass media had settled into the poor country, giving it a needed cash infusion, which also worked its way along to Genom's accounts as an amusing byproduct. The world was outraged and applauding at the same time. It had been a good choice to send Linna, her young face and true words appeased the social engineers who were now clambering for more third world involvement. Linna was still over there doing her job despite the added attention. She had to cope with the negatives; speeches from the UN and its Security Council members saying that it was illegal, governments shaking their heads. Financial and industry pundits calling her crazy. But they could do nothing but spout the hot air, because Sierra Leone had organized the deal and it was signed and approved by the respective leaderships. All that had to happen now was for it to work.  
  
The timer buzzed and she removed the plate and sat down at the bench to eat, a refilled glass along side. Sylia missed the hard liquor but her doctor and Nigel had been adamant that she stop. Coming from Nigel that had been rich. She agreed because she was in poor health and worn out and didn't need to add any more strain on her body, which supposedly should be in the flower of youth still.  
  
She ate in silence and eventually turned the news off. Some stocks were up, some were down. Analysts said this and that and all agreed that Genom was weak and doing some strange things. 'Even Chairman Quincy in his megalomania would not have bought a country to play with,' one Analyst joked. Sylia decided never to give an interview with CNNNN ever.  
  
Worked called and alone, in her large full-floor open-plan apartment she responded to the siren call, wanting, just even for one night, someone to spend the darkness with.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto hurriedly walked over to his office's door then paused in front of it. He didn't want to appear in a hurry or expectant. It was not the mainly thing to do. After counting to ten, also to give time for his heart to slow down, he opened the door.  
  
Candace breezed past him on unearthly legs, the wash of her perfume overriding his senses, just as her body overrode his self-control.  
  
"This is nice," Candace said eyeing the office. Big chairs and a sofa. A bonsai near the wall below a large painting with a single Japanese character on it. Austere. It needed a woman's touch, and luckily she was here to give it one.  
  
"Do you want anything to drink?" Itto asked and came up behind her. He reached out for her.  
  
Candace walked to the window of the office. Outside the huge city gleamed with thousands of points of light. It was amazing. Itto's reflection joined her.  
  
"Such a big city," she said, eyes looking down at him.  
  
"Tokyo will be greater when we rebuilt it."  
  
She smiled. Sure. She touched the glass. It was a little cooler than the room temperature. Smooth and hard at the same time. She wondered if anyone could see her this high up. There were other skyscrapers clustered in the central business district. Could one person with a pair of binoculars see her? Imagine that, having a kind of power over someone whom you couldn't see but was watching you, a voyeuristic thrill.  
  
"Your idea with Slyia worked perfectly." Itto was behind her again, the back of his hand brushed over the back of her neck. She had tied her hair up in a bun.  
  
"No business at this time of night Itto-sama," she said softly. "It gives me a headache."  
  
"Ah yes. For French it is the opposite; pleasure before business."  
  
A hand reached around her front to squeeze. "In France there is no business, just pleasure," and she undid her jacket and slipped it off her shoulders and cast it over a chair. She didn't want to get it creased. Two hands groped at her and he pressed up stiffly behind her.  
  
"Good, good." Itto said. He leant forward and bit at her neck. He heard her moan softly. Her breasts were magnificent. No woman, especially not a western woman could reject his 'sales pitch'. They all clamoured to be with a powerful as himself. "Let's go to the bedroom." He started to bite at her ear.  
  
"No, here first." Candace replied with a lick of her lips. She wanted to give any eyes watching from afar a good view. She leant up against the window, rear pressed out for him. His hands ran down her body with a hunger, down her skirt to the end and then started to lift it up, palms on her thighs like glue, raising it up above her hips to her waist. She heard his belt and zipper. "Itto-sama," she cooed and she felt him, and knew that he was in her power the moment he touched and she smiled, letting herself go, leeching his power into her, attaining the bliss and fire she required.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia tried not to look like she was staring down Candace's blouse but it was difficult when her PR Director leaned right over her desk and laid down the invitation to the Tokyo fundraiser.  
  
"Thanks." She said and caught Candace staring at her with a grin. "You know, before I ran this, I owned a woman's dress store in Tokyo."  
  
"Oh, I know all about that Ms. Stingray. Who doesn't know this rags to riches story." Candace said.  
  
"Nice pun." Sylia smiled back. It was good to have another high-powered woman in the company, and an excellent dresser. "I would have had a few dresses that would have just been perfect for you."  
  
"Really?" Candace supplied the fake enthusiasm. Only the Italians could give her any tips on dressing. Just. Syia dressed well, as far as Asian style went, which was years behind Europe. But she had a good figure to fill a suit out with and her hair made her striking. Like brushed silver. It was the only part of Sylia that Candace thought was superior to herself.  
  
"But I had to give that up. Sometimes I wonder why. A lot less stressful." Or had it been?  
  
Candace sat on the end of the table and leaned over. "How can you say that? Running a boutique is what the men of this world think women should be doing. Genom would be in charge of a man now, probably as part of a liquidation team if it weren't for you. It takes a lot of guts to get into this world and being successful at it sure does piss them off. That's worth it alone."  
  
"Thanks Candace. I guess I need my moments of support."  
  
Candace grinned and hopped of the table. She squeezed Sylia's shoulder just so and then let it run off softly as she started to walk away, saying: "Hope you have fun at the fundraiser."  
  
"I'll try." Sylia called after. When Candace had left her office she put her hand on her shoulder, still feeling the touch. What had that been? She asked herself. Confusion alien to her, she put the ambiguous touch out of her mind and returned to work. But for the rest of the day she would find her hand on her shoulder.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nigel opened up the Grasshopper hardsuit while Leon looked on with folded arms. "You say it took a direct rocket hit?"  
  
"That's right," Leon replied. "Damn fool flew himself into it."  
  
"Still, it doesn't look like there's too much damage." Nigel poked around the interior of the suit.  
  
"His men thought he was dead. Knocked out cold." Leon liked Nigel. He was a man. He drank, maybe a little too much, and did manly things. He also knew a lot about Sylia and the other Knight Sabres and the Grasshoppers.  
  
"How'd the rest go?" Nigel asked.  
  
"Good. Just some scratches. My team is really impressed."  
  
"They ought to be." Nigel said with creationalist pride. The suits were his design. He'd modified the girl's hardsuits so they could take any user, didn't matter who, the user could change at any time. They were bigger than the hardsuits, about seven feet tall, a foot shorter than a CaseSuit, and not as wide or as blocky. The suit retained human style shape and had a box of a jetpack on its back and the arms had high-velocity machine guns in them. They were designed for ranged combat from the get go. Nigel had seen the girls get injured too many times when fighting in close with boomers that had little more mind than a crazed animal. Genom's threats were also going to be more likely armed, as Sierra Leone had proved.  
  
"So, are they like the Knight Sabre's hardsuits?" Leon asked.  
  
"They're bigger."  
  
"I can see that. But, y'know, what makes them. go?"  
  
Nigel stepped back from the open machine and stared at Leon. "Does it matter?"  
  
Leon shrugged and felt the need to pick up a piece of metal lying about. "It might."  
  
"They're safe."  
  
"That doesn't make me glad to here. Most of my men are ADP. We risked our lives to fight boomers. We work here because it's out job to destroy any that go rogue, and it's easier to do when the builder lets you."  
  
Nigel went back to work on the Grasshopper. "No one's forcing you to do anything Leon."  
  
"Dammit. That's not what I'm saying. I agree with Sylia on these and the RRT. Control over boomers is better than fighting them with nothing. Its just."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I thought it was all over." Leon put the metal down. "And I could get back to a normal life."  
  
"You still can."  
  
"Is that your opinion?"  
  
"I don't have an opinion, Leon. I'm informing you of one of your choices. I just do what I'm told."  
  
Yeah, I've noticed, Leon didn't say aloud. Nigel didn't deserve that. "Well thanks anyway, for listening. Let me know when they're done." And he left.  
  
Mackey entered the workshop from another entrance as Leon was leaving. "What was that about?" he asked.  
  
"Men's stuff."  
  
Nigel left it at that.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The day ended like any other. Sylia returned to her apartment, did some work but decided to go to sleep early. She had unsettled dreams, tossing and turning beneath her sheets and she woke up in the middle of the night with a gasping cry. Her sheets were wet with her sweat and the smell of something else. Dazed, wondering what she had done and more importantly why she tried to remember her dream but could only recollect a few blurred images that made no sense. She had a shower and changed her sheets and managed to find sleep again for a few hours before the alarm went off to wake her.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
During the same night but in another city hours away by bullet train a warehouse was broken into and one of the containers stored within stolen. The warehouse wasn't due for any In or Out transfers until after the weekend and so the stolen container was not missed by the few Security personnel who only looked outwards with the aid of a few cheap boomers. It was these boomers that the intruders neutralized for the time they needed with a device that been developed by someone who had worked on the team that had designed that model of boomer.  
  
In another part of the city, the ruined city, a lone figure walked through the broken streets and by the transmogrified buildings. Everyone else took the figure for another drifter or squatter seeking loot or somewhere free to live. Small groups of such circled around fires in petrol drums and only gave a cursory glance or an invitation to share the warmth of the blaze. The figure ignored them all, continuing into the heart of the city that was said to be haunted.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia gave a half a days work and then used a few hours to get herself ready for the fundraiser. She also needed enough time to get to Tokyo and to the convention hall that was a few kilometers out from the quarantine zone. The City Council wanted the guests to know that Tokyo had been devastated, but didn't want to get them close enough to show them. From cameras it was a total mess. But Sylia had been there when it had happened, when Galatea had unleashed the Dragon Line and taken over every building in central Tokyo. No camera could do justice to being there, feeling the agony of the city and the emptiness that would possess it now.  
  
Her only contact with Itto was to inform him of the time he needed to be at the helipad for the flight by VTOL to Tokyo. The trip would take two hours and she hoped she didn't have to talk to the man for too long. Otherwise he might find himself falling out the plane and she in need of a new Head of Marketing, or S&M as Linna liked to call it. The girl had turned beet red when she had asked if she would have liked to be transferred there, to S&M. Teasing Linna each day brightened her mood a little. Maybe that's why I feel down, she's away and I don't have my dartboard. That's mean, Sylia Stingray. Linna is a good friend and supporter. You should be nicer to her.  
  
By herself she had her face done and a manicure and then went in search for a dress. She thought of Candace and wondered how she would appear; likely in something simple yet eye catching, and eye keeping. It was good to have a PR spokesperson who drew all the attention to her and away from what she was saying. It made her own job a lot easier and was reducing the amount of bad press for Genom. Money well spent.  
  
She ended up selecting a dark blue gown that looked night-black, with pearl ear-rings and necklace and matching purse.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Dressed and ready she joined Itto at the helipad and they entered the Genom VTOL. Like the rest of Genom's airfleet, the VTOL was under a long term contract that had been signed before the disaster and so, paid for, could still be used. The craft were already proving useful.  
  
The VTOL interior was luxurious, definitely a business model. Sylia and Itto took different sides of the plane. Sylia spoke early to get what she needed out of the way before the flight.  
  
"Who else is going to be there?"  
  
"Well everyone. But I guess you mean who is important for the tender. The most important are Mayor Hasegawa and his wife; she is very influential and a bit vain. Councilmen Ogori, Shikotsu and Nakajima will all be on the approval committee and have major parts of their districts in the quarantine zone."  
  
"Are we expected bribe them?"  
  
"I doubt we have the finances for that,"  
  
"So we have to find out what they want and give them more."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"I hate politics."  
  
"I agree, commerce is much better."  
  
They didn't speak for the remainder of the journey.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia made sure the pilot flew over the quarantine zone. Standing out amongst the rest of the buildings was the hideously transformed Totem Pole, the ADP building. The maw of the giant boomer head still remained. It was still. As was the whole area. There was no power. The buildings, windows broken, facades disfigured, were like skulls leering back at her. Her failure to stop Galatea before the mad sister had almost unleashed the plague on the rest of the world. But then, it hadn't been her that had stopped Galatea. It had been Priss.  
  
Unlike Linna and Nene, Priss had not been found. Galatea had been destroyed and perhaps Priss as well, uncharacteristically sacrificing herself for the world she did not like. Or, just as the others had survived, maybe she had too and was someone on Earth, but had discarded them finally. While the others would have liked to have her back, Sylia only wanted to thank her for getting Mackey back.  
  
They quarantine zone fell behind and they landed and were taken to the function in a limousine to arrive and be escorted inside past a curious crowd and a growing number of reporters and news vans. She heard someone call out her name as she hurried up the steps as rain started to fall.  
  
The hall was large and floor layered with a thick red carpet. Hundreds were already present; guests and staff, all finely attired and clustered about benches of refreshment or sitting tables. A black tie band played at one end of the hall.  
  
"I hope the fundraiser raises more than this cost." Sylia said.  
  
"Well then, let us make ourselves known. No point dallying."  
  
They found the Mayor surrounded by a large circle of followers and tender- seekers. The crowd parted a little to let them through except for one man. He stepped out to block their passage with an offered hand.  
  
"My dear Itto, it has been a long time." The man said.  
  
"Yagyu Kito, a long time indeed." Itto said for Sylia's benefit and shook Kito's hand.  
  
"Still at Genom I hear?"  
  
"Yes. You at Fuchikoma Construction?"  
  
"Yes. Ah, and this must be your illustrious Chairwoman, Ms Sylia Stingray, daughter of the famed Doctor Stingray, or has she been married and is a Mrs?" Kito said with a smiling face but eyes that were like daggers.  
  
"Still a Miss Mr. Yagyu. Little time for family running Japan's largest corporation." Sylia replied.  
  
Itto smiled, he might not like Sylia much but he was a Genom loyalist to the core and wouldn't take any offense. "And we will be more than that again shortly."  
  
"After the quarantine zone tender then?" Kito said.  
  
"Aren't we all?" Itto sidestepped Kito and brought Sylia along with him to present the both of them to the Mayor of Tokyo. They both bowed politely.  
  
"Ms. Stingray, you do look quite well. I hope the same for you company?" the Mayor said in formality.  
  
Sylia knew that what she said in reply would strongly influence the Mayors decision and also what the rest of the Japanese business community thought of her and Genom. She knew that many regarded her as trying to use her Father's fame to win her own glory, a little girl trying to play the big game with men. She remembered what Candace had said to her about the glass ceiling.  
  
"Genom improves daily, Sir. I expect to see us back at full capacity with new models in less than a year."  
  
There were mummers of disbelief.  
  
"And you want to know why gentlemen?" Itto stepped up, "Because Genom has the best products and the only products that can be trusted. Our new models will be the best yet in terms of quality and performance. Our competitors are still infants in boomer production and maintenance. Genom has the skills and experience and the record."  
  
"Then why have you hired the entire ADP? Wasn't it their job to destroy boomers?" Kito snidely remarked.  
  
"We take pride in our employees and our new Security Consultancy branch will allow all Genom customers to feel secure. In any case Yagyu, boomers are much more efficient at construction. They work all day and, unlike humans, have fewer accidents. I'm sorry about the dozen men that died in Hokkaido."  
  
"That was the fault of a sub-contractor -" Kito spluttered.  
  
"When you deal with Genom you deal with us and we take full responsibility." Sylia joined in. They'd just easily placed Genom ahead of Fuchikoma. She'd have to talk to Itto about his 'Security Consultancy' later. That was never part of her plan.  
  
"Gentlemen, gentlemen. Tonight will not be full of industrial sabotage, I'll leave that to you in private." The Mayor said and the crowd gave the required laugh.  
  
"We should mingle," Itto suggested.  
  
Sylia nodded and when Itto stayed put that he meant for her to mingle while he schmoozed the Major and other councilmen. He probably wanted her to find the Mayors wife and treat her vanity. As if.  
  
Instead she spied a waitered bench and saw that there were bottles of champagne and wine. The hunger woke in her stomach and unable to resist she threaded her way to the bench.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Outside the raining was falling heavily. Two vans drove past the convention building and turned along side it into a side lane. A pair of policemen came out of the cover from the rain and ordered the vans to stop.  
  
While one of the policemen lit a cigarette to stay warm the other walked up to the driver's side and motioned for the window to be rolled down which it was.  
  
"This area's restricted, you will have to turn back."  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't know," the driver said back. "I'm lost, I'm trying to reach the Ayami Hotel."  
  
The policeman frowned, "That's on the other side of town,"  
  
"Foolish me," said the driver and he shot the policeman in the face with a silenced pistol.  
  
The other policeman heard a grunt and clatter as his compatriot fell. He ran around to see what had happened and was shot as well from the passenger side.  
  
"Get the bodies in the van and then move into position."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Well, well. If it isn't the famous Sylia Stringray." A male voice said from next to Sylia. She turned and looked at the tall westerner with a press tag smiling at her. She read the tag.  
  
"George Negus of CNNNN."  
  
"Care for an interview?" George asked while receiving a glass of sparkling wine from a waiter.  
  
"Sorry. I don't give interviews." Sylia took her own glass. The apprehension she self was incredible. It had been half a year since her last drink. The rising bubbles called out to her. Begged to travel down her throat. She didn't realize how long she'd been staring at it when George cleared his throat.  
  
"Maybe you shouldn't drink that." He took hold of it above Sylia's hand.  
  
"I'm fine." Sylia snapped and resisted.  
  
"Careful, don't spill it over your dress." George let go. "It wouldn't do if people got hold of your problem."  
  
Sylia looked at him in anger. "It's not a problem, and how dare you for threatening me."  
  
George held us his hands. "I'm saying that as someone who has been there Ms. Stingray, not to use it against you. How long has it been?"  
  
"Six months."  
  
"That's a good effort. Don't let it go to waste. Now." he reached out to grab it again and jerked forward as someone bumped into him from behind. His fingers hit the top of the glass and it tipped.  
  
The first drops were spilling before Sylia knew what had happened. She felt the drops hit her upper chest and saw the large wave heading towards her. Reflexes kicked in and she twisted to the side and the airborne liquid flew by to strike someone else.  
  
"Sorry about that," George apologized and a waiter scurried to clean up the mess. "Better there than fogging your head," he said quietly to Sylia.  
  
Sylia got a napkin and dabbed at the drops on her. "Excuse me, I'm going to clean my self up." She stalked off.  
  
George mentally kicked himself. Way to go champ.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The radio signals came in and all was ready. The signal was given.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia pushed the bathroom door forcefully and stomped into it. She found a spare mirror between the other women powdering their noses and saw gladly that her dress hadn't been stained. She wet the napkin and brushed it over her sticky skin.  
  
Her emotions were conflicting. Relieved that she had not had any drink, angry that her chance had been spoilt. Her body had ached for the alcohol to work on her. One drink, just this one night, wouldn't be bad for her. No one would care, no one would tell. She'd be like everyone else and that was okay, wasn't it?  
  
She dabbed her face with water and told herself to calm down. She had a role to play, an important one, that required all of her attention.  
  
Straightening herself up she left the bathroom and ran into the damn reporter.  
  
"Are you stalking me?" she yelled.  
  
"No, I -" George backed up, "I just wanted to apologise. It isn't any of my business if you drink or not,"  
  
"Got that right. Now let me through."  
  
The building shook.  
  
"What was that?" someone said.  
  
Then the roof collapsed and dust and debris filled the air.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
From the solitude of the city the loner felt the disturbance. For days it had been drawn to the source of the weak signal and now it had manifested itself. Standing upright and looking out over the broken spires of Tokyo and the trunks of the Dragon Line, the loner scanned for the signal and found it. With darting steps the cloak about flew.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia coughed out the dust and plaster that had filled her mouth. Next to her George was doing the same. She pulled herself upright and looked around.  
  
The hallway was full of floating dust and most of the roof had caved in. Concrete, wires and the floor above blocked the hall. The bathroom door creaked open and terrified looking women peeked outside. Through the door way she caught her reflection in a mirror. Her face was white with dust.  
  
"So much for the dress," it was dirtied too.  
  
George stood up beside her. "Nothing a wash wont do. Now, what do you think happened?"  
  
Sylia hoped what her first thought was wasn't true. A metallic roar from beyond the rubble filled corridor destroyed that hope. "Rogue boomers." She said.  
  
"What, you're kidding?" George said. "I thought that was all propaganda by anti-boomer activities like the fabled Knight Sabres."  
  
"Oh, they're real all right." Another roar was heard. Some gunfire. "Stay in the bathroom and don't come out." Sylia ordered the women. They obeyed quickly.  
  
"That's a good idea, we should join them and let the police handle this."  
  
Sylia snorted. "If it is boomers, the police wont have a chance. I need to contact my company." She looked around for another way out. Her eyes settled upwards.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto was hunkered down behind a bench against the wall with many just as frightened black suit wearing men and women in dresses. He watched as a pair of boomers, clearly Genom models, rampaged through the hall. Smoke was everywhere and so were bodies lying still on the ground. Some were policemen who had tried to shoot the boomers. The sound their bones made where hitting the ground were terrible.  
  
"Someone call for help!"  
  
"Someone call the Knight Sabres!"  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
With all the reporters outside the news was on the air within minutes and broadcasts taken over. With no Genom media manipulation (waste of money, Sylia had cancelled the program), the services put the boomer rampage story on live on every channel and more channels began to converge on the site.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Holy shit, Leon, you gotta see this!" Haruga burst into Leon's office where he was writing up Sierra Leone.  
  
"I'm kinda busy, Haruga."  
  
"But it's a rogue boomer!"  
  
"What!?" Leon shot out of his seat and followed Haruga to the lunchroom where the TV was. Sure enough, the reporter was claiming that a fundraising function had been attacked by rogue boomers that had already killed several policemen. The building was being surrounded. Noise of destruction could be heard from inside.  
  
"What do we do?" Haruga asked.  
  
Leon ground his teeth. "Wait for orders. It's not our mandate to go rushing off like the Knight Sabres would have." And they would have, without a hesitation. Leon expected a call to come down from Sylia at any moment authorizing his men into action to destroy the boomers. That was what they'd been created for, wasn't it?  
  
"Where's it taking place?"  
  
"Tokyo."  
  
Of all the places, where else?  
  
"That's hours away. We'd never get there in time."  
  
"But shouldn't we at least get ready?" Haruga asked.  
  
"Good idea." Leon said, looking back to his office, waiting for the phone to ring.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia held out her hand and pulled when George took it. He scrambled up the pile of rubble.  
  
"What are we doing this for?" he asked.  
  
"To find a phone. You don't have one?"  
  
"No. I said that before. Phones were confiscated on the way in."  
  
"What kind of reporter are you then if you can't sneak in a phone?" Sylia asked.  
  
"A respectable one."  
  
Sylia snorted and stood up when the floor of the level felt secure. She had torn her incredibly expensive dress above the knee and then ripped a slit up her thigh so she could run if she had to. She used a strip of the dress to tie back her hair. George was quite amazed at her transformation.  
  
"You check that side, there has to be an office here."  
  
"Okay."  
  
They found storerooms and small meeting rooms with plugs for phones and network connections but they saw no phones. Sylia couldn't believe it. What kind of centre didn't have a phone?  
  
"I think were over the hall." George said.  
  
The thumps of the boomers caused the room to shudder.  
  
"We'd better hurry."  
  
They did and entered a new corridor. Thankfully the first room they checked had a phone. Sylia picked it up and quickly punched in the direct number for the Security Division. One RRT was always on base.  
  
"Dammit, get through," she scowled.  
  
"Is it dead?"  
  
Sylia swore. "It's dead. We've got to get outside."  
  
The floor groaned.  
  
"Get out!" George yelled.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The RRT prepped their gear in record time and then sat waiting around for orders. Leon was on the phone but no one knew where Sylia was and other directors said to leave it to the local authorities. 'Chief' Roland was on his way to Sierra Leone. His subordinate couldn't be reached. He punched the table.  
  
"No word." Haruga asked when Leon reentered the lunchroom.  
  
"None."  
  
"Man. This can't be happening. Our first rogue boomer and no Sylia hasn't told us to go."  
  
"Just like old times. Sitting on our hands."  
  
"Too bad the Knight Sabres have gone into retirement," a trooper called Simmons said.  
  
"Yeah." One was in Sierra Leone. The other probably on the computer or asleep. Another somewhere in the city. The last, no one knew where she was. Her loss he felt the most.  
  
"So you saying that we need lady boss' command to go?" another trooper said.  
  
"That's right Shihara. She can give us the green light. All the others have gone chicken on us." Haruga answered.  
  
"Well, wouldn't that be hard? I mean, she's in there with the boomers."  
  
"What!?" Leon and Haruga shouted.  
  
Shihara cringed. "Hey, don't kill me. They just showed some footage of who had gone in and she was one of them."  
  
Leon tried to not to run over and strangle the life out of Shihara, or to crush him in a hug. "Okay people. Suit up and rack up, we've got our green light."  
  
Cheers filled the lunchroom.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Using the small mirror from her purse, Sylia inched it out into the corridor from the room they had fled into. Dust and smoke obscured the view but then a solid ropy leg came into view, a second, and a third, and a forth. Sylia ducked back and tried not to make a sound. The boomer was well into the rogue stage by the look of its mutated body. That meant it was very dangerous and unpredictable.  
  
On her hands and knees she crawled over to George who was looking the worse for wear. She held a finger up to her lips and he nodded. She noticed that the CNNNN press badge was missing.  
  
The beast thumped closer to the door and stopped by it. Sylia swore to herself, the door was open. All the other doors would be shut or locked.  
  
"Get read to run," she whispered to George. He swallowed.  
  
The door was nuzzled open and the beast revealed.  
  
"My god!" George exclaimed.  
  
Damn! "Run!"  
  
The beast leapt into the room and smashed the table between them. Splinters flew through the air. Sylia kicked open the door to the next room and sped through it with George close behind. The giant hound looking beast snarled and came after them in a lope. It smashed the doorframe as it passed through.  
  
"Don't stop," Sylia yelled and hurdled a chair. She came to another door and yanked at the handle. It was locked. She swore. The beast entered the room and she ducked down behind a bench. She didn't know where George had gone. The boomer breathed noisily. She inched back the way she had come and got out the mirror again. When she reached the end of the bench she held the mirror and angled it around the corner.  
  
She screamed.  
  
The beast's face filled the mirror.  
  
"Over here you bastard!" George shouted and threw whatever he could find at the back of the rogue boomer that was easily twice his size.  
  
The boomer then did something incredibly strange, it picked up one of the hurled objects and threw it back. The force lodged it into the wall where George's head had been.  
  
Sylia used the distraction to charge past the boomer but it was after her quickly. Her mind raced over the boomers behaviour. It wasn't acting like a rogue at all. It was acting purposefully. And it was after her. She ran as fast as she could in the confinement and jumped out of the room she had first hidden in, the beasts claw swiping and missing just. She crashed into the wall and tried to roll off it but the boomer leapt and its fore claws pushed her back into the wall. Its terrible face was inches from hers, snarling. The jaw started to open.  
  
Then it stopped and Sylia became aware that she wasn't alone with the boomer and the other wasn't George. Slowly she turned her head and saw a dark shape standing down the corridor. The lights were mostly broken but she could tell that it was human. And.  
  
The stranger had its arm held out and it began to walk to the boomer. The hand was gloved and the stranger's body cloaked, face his behind a wrap of black cloth.  
  
The boomer jerked in tiny motions like ensnared and trying to find a way free without tearing itself apart. Hot red eyes darted between Sylia and the stranger. The stranger got closer and the boomer was forced backwards. With the other hand the stranger motioned for Sylia to go the way he had come. George slipped by the other side.  
  
"What's going on?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
The struggle between the stranger and the boomer then ended and the boomer let out a great roar and leapt. It was fascinating to watch the beast rise with its jaw opening and metal teeth slid out into place. It was more fascinating to watch the cloaked stranger grab the beast by the throat and throw it to the floor and then punch a hand into the beast's belly. Green and orange fluid spurted out as the core was destroyed. The stranger stood, muck dripping from its hand.  
  
"Who are you?" George asked.  
  
Sylia felt that the stranger was looking at her and it made her uncomfortable. It brought back bad memories. Her Father. She shook her head and opened her eyes. The stranger was gone.  
  
"I think its time to get out of here."  
  
"Yes." Sylia agreed.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
A fire engine put up a ladder for them and they got on quickly. The centre was surrounded by police and other services. The media contingent was almost as large. Dozens of reports flocked over them then when they got down. She was instantly recognized as Sylia Stingray.  
  
"Miss Stingray, what is wrong with Genom boomers? Are all the rumours of their danger true?"  
  
"What has Genom been hiding? The public demands to know the truth!"  
  
Sylia snatched the first phone she saw and quickly got Leon's status. He would arrive in another hour. She told the reporters to wait another hour and see what Genom was really about. She also found out that two more boomers were in the building. Scores of men and women had escaped the building but over two hundred were still trapped inside. Candace called on the phone.  
  
"How did you get this number?" Sylia asked. It wasn't her phone.  
  
"Leon gave it to me. Some blonde traced it." Nene, Syia thought and smiled. "Have you spoken to any reporters yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Good. Don't. We'll make a statement in the morning."  
  
"Well, you better be watching what happens when the RRT gets here. That should help clean up our image. We've got all the hostages to rescue."  
  
"Uh, I don't know if that's a good idea Sylia." Candace said.  
  
"Don't worry. I have full confidence in my team."  
  
Sylia put away the phone.  
  
"What am I waiting or?" Geroge asked. He was wrapped in a towel and held one out to Sylia. She took it and put it about her shoulders. What she really needed was a pair of pants. She hoped the paparazzi weren't taking advantage of the situation.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The stranger pulled the covering away from its face and enjoyed the cool air that ran over the skin. Standing on top of a building a block away from the convention centre, its attention was diverted to the approaching sound of a rotor and five small, subdued voices. Briefly anger welled but it was controlled at the aircraft passed overhead and hovered above the convention centre. Five large figures dropped out onto the roof. The stranger left.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
After bursts of gunfire the hostages started to stream out of the convention centre and policemen and medics rushed inside. As the trickle of rescued died down a big black shape filled the doorway and people started to scream and run.  
  
Sylia recongised the Grasshopper and rushed up the steps. The visor flipped open.  
  
"There you are," Leon said.  
  
"It's over?" Sylia asked.  
  
"Yes. Bagged a pair of boomers, but it was weird -"  
  
"Because they didn't feel rogue?"  
  
"Right. We had to destroy them both."  
  
Sylia nodded. "Thanks for coming to get me. How does it feel?"  
  
"To be on the other side for a change?" Leon grinned.  
  
"Yeah." Sylia grinned back. Black sooty face and white teeth.  
  
"Great."  
  
"Make sure you recover the boomer's corpses. They're our property."  
  
"Okay." And he returned into the centre.  
  
George ran up to her ahead of the media crowd again. "Jesus, they were yours?"  
  
She turned around, and freed her bound hair and shook it out. Despite her utter state of dishevlemement she looked a stunner. "No comment, and that's all your going to get tonight ladies and gentlemen."  
  
"What do you think the headline should be Miss Stingray?" Goerge stepped closer to her, "Genom destroys boomers. Almost impossible to think isn't it?"  
  
"I'll tell you later." She replied.  
  
"Is that an confirmation of an interview?" he asked.  
  
"It's a date," and she turned around and spotting Itto, heading in his direction.  
  
George rubbed his face, wondering which way to take Sylia's last words. He shrugged, either way it would be a headline. 


	3. The Way Of The Businessman

The Way of the Businessman  
  
"Hi Daley, how are you today?" Linna Yamazaki said with a smile.  
  
"Fine thanks Linna, you?" Daley Wong replied, taking a seat opposite Linna, who was seated behind a rather large Presidential table in a rather large Presidential leather chair. Behind her was a room-height explosion- resistant window that looked out upon the Presidential Palace's courtyard. Daley could see Lt. Samuel's RRT drilling their powerful equipment; the Grasshopper combat suits. Absently he rubbed the swollen side of his face.  
  
Linna notices Daley's attention but didn't need to turn around herself to see what was going on. "Hear about Tokyo?" she asked.  
  
"Yes. Sylia sure was lucky. I guess it was too good to last."  
  
"That a boomer would go rogue?"  
  
"No. That someone would try and kill her." Daley said.  
  
"What? If that was the case, then why did she publicly announce that it was a rogue boomer and a defect Genom has known for years?" Linna said.  
  
"Because releasing the truth would be more harmful to Genom," Daley folded his hands over his lap. "If whoever struck at Sylia knows that she's aware of them they'll become harder to find out about. If the government or media knew the truth, no one would want to do business with Genom. The few investors she has would pull out."  
  
"That's a dangerous game to play," Linna frowned.  
  
"Your Sabre boss seems to be good at dangerous games." Daley tried to smile.  
  
"Yeah. She is." Linna sat back in her chair. Inside, she wished she was back in Tokyo with the others, with her hardsuit. Not here in Sierra Leone running a country and debt-repayment scheme.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The crane lifted the prefabricated wall-section high into the air.  
  
Sylia watched it rise with a hand shielding the sun from her eyes. "How is the construction going Foreman?" she asked a squat man in a suit but with a hardhat on beside her. She had a hardhat on too.  
  
"A little behind schedule I'm afraid Ms. Stingray. The use of boomers has been scaled back because the workers don't want to be around them."  
  
"Because they think the boomers will go rogue?" Sylia asked back.  
  
"Yes. I've tried reorganizing the shifts so workers work during the day and boomers in the night but its not as efficient. Parts of the factory have to be built at the same time and the workers aren't as fast."  
  
Sylia nodded, watching as the crane was carefully guided and the wall section lowered into place. Another piece of her new boomer production factory finished.  
  
"Do the worker's mind that they're building a boomer factory?" she asked.  
  
"That's some of it as well, but they're I've assured them that the new models will be safe, isn't that right ma'am?"  
  
Sylia glanced at the foreman. "Yes. They'll be perfectly safe. The previous administration didn't know how to complete my fathers work."  
  
"That's good to hear. I've been nervous myself."  
  
"Well, thank you for the tour foreman. Keep me addressed of the progress and do try to allay the workers fears about the boomers. That's why I have placed so much security here." Sylia said and then walked back up the way she had come to exit the construction site.  
  
The factory was her big gamble. Building it had forced her to increase her debt with the banks and government, and also required foreign investment, some of which she was sure was from her competitors. She'd managed to get the government to consent by hiring a lot of unemployed construction workers - boomers had almost destroyed the industry completely and the remaining firms were lining up to go for the Tokyo reconstruction tender. At least there, she had been able to have contracts ready with each firm on boomer maintenance and security. So, even if she didn't get the tender herself, she'd get part of the proceeds. Still, she wanted that tender. Someone had tried to kill her so she wouldn't. That had just strengthened her resolve. As a sign of good faith she kept Leon's RRT in Tokyo to go through and destroy any rogue boomers that remained in the Quarantine zone. She also wanted them to find the person who had saved her from the hunter- boomers.  
  
The three boomers had been taken back to her R&D facility where Nigel had inspected them and found that they had been remote controlled. If she had heard Daley's assumption of her actions, thousands of miles away that he was, she would have smiled, her choice of taking him in a good investment. Parts of Daley's division were already tracking the boomers movements down: who had owned them previously, who built the remote control equipment and so on. If she was lucky, something would come up but she wasn't expectant; whoever had tried to kill her would have covered their tracks well.  
  
She also was taking measures to increase security at all her facilities in case of a repeat attack. The someone out to get her, or Genom, had means and wouldn't give up after the first attempt. She'd thought that three RRT would be enough, but they were now split up over Japan and in her new country, Sierra Leone. Progress was coming along slowly there as well, but that had always been a long term investment. At least they were having success in subduing the rebels and soon the money from diamond sales would be filling her redline bank account.  
  
She looked at her watch; it was half past two in the afternoon. She had to hurry if she was going to get back her office before the next management meeting.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto watched as a helicopter flew between the towers of central Osake-Kobe from afar. The buildings over there were massive beasts. All of them built by boomers made by his company. A company that was being run into the ground, money wasted on foolish foreign ventures and pandering to the human workers who cost more than a boomer to run.  
  
"We need that factory gentlemen," he said to his clique who were seated by him in his office. "Our esteemed Chairwoman told the board today that the construction is behind schedule. I guess she doesn't mind because she was half an hour late for the meeting!" he laughed, and the clique laughed with him.  
  
"I've heard from payroll that costs are over budget there as well," a lackey said.  
  
"Yes. The factory is already 20% over cost. Because the workers are too afraid of the boomers and won't work with them." Itto snorted.  
  
"At this rate Genom will bleed to death," someone groused.  
  
"I don't' understand. Why doesn't she just order the boomers in? They would be able to complete factory in no time. Our boomers do it all the time." The first lackey said. "We don't need the workers at all."  
  
Itto gave an exasperated sigh. "Unfortunately we do. Genom has long term contracts with the workers and they're all Union."  
  
"Who made that insane agreement?"  
  
"Guess."  
  
"Yes. Our Chairwoman." Itto snorted. "She said it was the only way for the Government to drop their lawsuits and to give us a . a handout in aid! Like we, Genom, needs a hand out from those politicians! We put them there, they owe us, but when we're weak, they spit at us! They have no loyalty."  
  
The first lackey stood up and cursed. "Genom will crumble because of that woman."  
  
"She must be removed." The second said.  
  
All eyes went to him.  
  
Itto leaned in, staring the man directly in the eye. "And how do we do that? Do you want to kill her? You saw Tokyo, I was almost killed then too."  
  
"No. We don't have to kill her. But,"  
  
"But," Itto prompted.  
  
"If the factory is not finished we are all doomed. If it looks like that will happen, the rest of the board can get rid of her for incompetence. And then a real leader can take her place."  
  
Itto smiled. "What do you suggest?"  
  
"It is the workers who are slowing us down. We have to get rid of them also and in a way that we are the victims. If," the man pondered, "if they go on strike we can shut them out and bring in the boomers to finish the factory and then fire all the workers for breach of contract."  
  
"The Chairwoman wouldn't do that. She would talk to the Union," the first lackey said with a sidelong glance to his superior.  
  
"She would have to be voted out first of course. If the workers go on strike during her talks then she won't be seen to be in control. She'll have no other option but to step aside."  
  
Itto clapped the man's shoulder. "That is a good plan. Now, only a few of us know, and we are all important to the company so we can't be involved. You, brave soul, will organize it all and carry it out. You cannot talk to us about it, but know that when it is over and the Chairwoman disposed, you will be greatly rewarded for your loyalty to the Company."  
  
The man stood. "I live for the Company, Sir."  
  
"Good, good. Now, get to work. We need this miracle of yours quickly if we are to save Genom."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Candace LeCourviere breezed into Sylia's 104th floor office, her hip snug cream skirt swaying from side to side as she walked up to her boss.  
  
Sylia looked up and smiled. She had been reading the minutes of the half hour of the meeting she had missed. Damn traffic, she had cursed. She didn't let that show on her face however. "Good that you came Candace."  
  
"Always a pleasure Sylia." Candace replied with her sweet French accent. Her voice alone could relax and bring calm. A good asset for someone in Public Relations. She sat on the table next to Sylia and crossed her legs.  
  
"The meeting didn't go to well did it?" Sylia said.  
  
Candace patted Sylia on the shoulder and left her hand there. "Don't worry about Itto. Marketing types only want good news. They don't have much to do because they haven't been making any big sales."  
  
"That just isn't their problem however Candace. It's all our job to make sure we sell boomers."  
  
"Even if they aren't safe?" Candace raised an eyebrow.  
  
"You know that the incident in Tokyo was an attack. But we have to say that they went rogue."  
  
"Any information on who was responsible?" Candace asked.  
  
"No." Sylia shook her head. "So, what good news do you have for me?"  
  
"Not too much I'm afraid. But there isn't a lot of bad news either. So for that we can be thankful, no?"  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"Ah, mon cherie. No bad news is good news in its self. We've managed to prove that two of our customers illegally modified their boomers and that will swing several lawsuits in our way. Or, the perpetrators can sign lifetime contracts with us for replacement and maintenance."  
  
Sylia grinned. "That is evil."  
  
"Isn't it?" Candace laughed. "My, you are tense." She squeezed Sylia's collar.  
  
"A lot has been happening."  
  
Candace hopped off the table and stood behind Sylia. Before Slyia knew what was going on, Candace had unbuttoned the top button of her blouse and pulled her collar back to expose most of her shoulders.  
  
"What are you?" Sylia said and tried to turn around. Candace pressed down gently, but firmly.  
  
And started to massage Sylia's shoulders.  
  
Sylia let out a long sigh and closed her eyes. The tension was kneaded out of her muscles completely. "That's perfect," she said slowly.  
  
"Good," Candace said, behind her. She drove away the tightness, and there was a lot. She also imagined her hands doing something to the neck between them. "I like to have a proper masseur relax me at least once a month." And she had an idea.  
  
"That would be nice. Unfortunately I don't have the time to spare."  
  
Candace leaned forward and spoke into Sylia's ear: "That's too bad. I know a real good place."  
  
Sylia's nose was filled with the perfume Candace wore. It was subtle, but strong. Like a lure.  
  
Her buzzer buzzed.  
  
"Damn. Looks like my time's up." Sylia said with only a small amount of mock-dissatisfaction. Most of it was real.  
  
"Think about it. There's no rush," Candace gave a final squeeze of Sylia's shoulders, and then innocently enough, a hand brushed over Sylia's breast as she stepped away to leave, the tips touching the peak just enough to send a powerful and jolting serge through Sylia.  
  
Sylia's eyes flew open and her breath was caught. She almost got up but Candace kept walking out of her office. If she said something. she'd sound foolish, or worse. Confused, she let her PR Manager go, then quickly redid her button. Suddenly the room had become too warm, or cold. She didn't know which.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Linna looked out the window of her hotel bedroom. She had refused staying at the palace. Working there was hard enough. Seeing the opulent living conditions of the former President, who was somewhere in the Caribbean from the last report she'd read, she had been appalled. So much of the country was in poverty or ruins, and he had lived like a king.  
  
That was the problem of the entire ruling elite as well, and with the army generals. Their neighbourhoods were all in good condition with electricity and water. That couldn't be said for the rest of the country. Even the capital looked rundown.  
  
She didn't know how Sylia expected to get a single yen out of the country, no matter how many diamonds were dug up.  
  
She sighed and drew the blinds shut and took a seat at the small round table in the middle of her room. On it was a small cake that she had managed to find from a delicatessen. She lit the single candle.  
  
"Happy birthday Linna Yamazaki. Happy 21st. You are now an adult. Blow out your candle." She said and did, the small gust of air stirring the flame. For a moment, she thought that it would oppose her and stay alight. It flickered out. Smoke rose.  
  
She pulled out the candle carefully, so not much cake would be stuck to it. She didn't want to waste any. Not on her special day.  
  
The room quiet, she picked up a three-pronged fork and held it on its side. It began its descent.  
  
There was a knock on her door.  
  
"Dammit!" Linna swore under her breath, "Can't I even have this much?"  
  
Her chair scrapped back and she stormed to the door and yanked it open. "What?" she snapped.  
  
Daley recoiled. "Uh."  
  
Linna calmed down. "Sorry, Daley."  
  
"Were you expecting someone else? I'll go get them if you want so you can yell at them."  
  
"No. I wasn't expecting anybody," she emphasized.  
  
Daley recollected himself. "You could have destroyed boomers with the look on you face then Linna."  
  
"Gee, thanks." What she really needed to hear.  
  
"Ah. My turn to be sorry."  
  
"It's okay. What were you after?"  
  
"Nothing official. I was just in my room, thinking. There wasn't anything good to watch on satellite, all those channels and nothing to see, eh? So."  
  
"So you were bored and needed company?" Linna said. She was leaning against the doorframe, a bit of a smirk on her lips.  
  
"Well, if you aren't doing anything," Daley shrugged.  
  
"Oh no, I'm not doing anything." Linna threw up her hands.  
  
"Well, if we're both not doing anything."  
  
What the hell. It does beat being along. "You want to come in?"  
  
"You wont bite my head off?" Daley said with mock-caution.  
  
"Not right away," Linna winked and backed up into the room. Daley followed.  
  
"Cake? Missing home already?" Daley tried to sound jovial.  
  
"Already. A lot."  
  
"Any special occasion?" Daley pressed.  
  
"My birthday. As much as it is," Linna sat down on the edge of her bed. Her work clothes were strewn all over it. Even her unmentionables. She scurried to clean the mess up.  
  
"Don't clean on my behalf. You should see my room."  
  
"I bet it's as clean as whistle."  
  
Daley shrugged. "Maybe. Well, happy birthday. Congratulations."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Not what you expected to have?"  
  
Linna snorted. "You think?"  
  
"How old?" Daley asked.  
  
"Twenty-one."  
  
"Ouch."  
  
"Yeah. You can have some if you want." Linna waved her hand.  
  
"That's hardly birthday cheer," Daley smiled.  
  
Linna just looked back at him flatly.  
  
Daley cut the cake into quarters and offered a piece to Linna, which she took. It was small enough to nibble on. The cake was spongy and full of small pieces of fruit.  
  
"This is pretty good," Daley said.  
  
Linna mumbled an agreement around a mouthful.  
  
"Tell me, what kind of birthday did you want?"  
  
"I don't know. The same as every other girl." She shrugged.  
  
"You're hardly an every other girl. A Knight Sabre, a powerful corporate woman, the head of a country."  
  
"I don't mind the Knight Sabre bit. In a way, I'm sorry that that part of my life is over. It was my dream until I got to Tokyo. Then I got to live that dream."  
  
"Then tell me what kind of birthdays Knight Sabre's have."  
  
Linna looked down and blushed. "Why dream aloud?"  
  
"Because," Daley said, leaning forward, "They're the best kind."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi looked at the screen for the final time, satisfied with the changes that he had done. He closed down the application and switched the computer off and leaned back in his chair.  
  
Outside, if he had bothered to look, was dark, and the time on his watch was eleven pm. It had taken him four and a half hours, starting when most of his work compatriots left for a night out drinking in the bars, to get access to the duty roster and make his changes.  
  
He rubbed his tired eyes and packed up his belongings, deciding to stop by a Lawson's 24-hour market on his way to the metro station that would take him back to his flat. Here he wanted to sleep heavily and not think about what was going to happen in the morning. It would be better if he unconcerned.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Morning did bring about what Satoshi had planned for.  
  
"I swear the schedule did not have the boomer unit arriving until tonight," a confused and worried junior project planner said.  
  
"Then why are they here now?" the foremen yelled at him. "The schedule didn't change itself, go and find out what happened!"  
  
The planner bowed apologetically while backing out of the room. A construction supervisor replaced him, coming in at a quick walk.  
  
"The Union official has arrived and he's stirring up the workers sir."  
  
"Just what I need, dammit. Is any work being done?" the foreman asked.  
  
"The boomers are doing their bit."  
  
"Well we better go and talk to the union guy before he causes too much trouble."  
  
They did and went out into the factory where the trouble was taking place. Half a dozen boomers were constructing an assembly point while about twice that many workers stood a distance away. The foreman walked up to the union official.  
  
"What's going on here, why aren't you men at work?"  
  
"We're not working with boomers!" A worker said. Others backed him up.  
  
"Are you afraid of the tin men Haruka?" the foreman said back.  
  
"They could go crazy," another worker said.  
  
The foremen ignored the men and addressed the union official. "What are you doing here? My men have work to do."  
  
"This is a breach of the agreement foreman." The official said.  
  
"It was an accident. Somehow the schedule was modified. We're looking into it. Now, I don't want you putting any inflammatory ideas into these guys heads. We're behind schedule-"  
  
"I have every right to be here. I look after the rights of the employees. Your 'accident' could be a ruse to bring in the boomers and break the agreement we signed with your boss. She said herself that the old boomers could be dangerous,"  
  
"That's why we've got extra security."  
  
"That's not enough. I remember the number of rumours circulating Tokyo last year about rogue boomers. The ADP were meant to stop them but they weren't very good at it. And if you haven't noticed, most of your security are ex- ADP officers. That doesn't comfort me very much," the official said.  
  
"Well your just going to have to live with it. And the rest of you," he addressed the workers, "get back to work. That's what you're paid for."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
It was another busy day. She had just finished two one-hour long consecutive meetings with different teams of her legal department about Genom's strategy to combat the lawsuits placed against them by pacific and sourthern-arfican countries about the damage their nations have suffered when pieces of the space elevator and the array had fallen to earth. Lives had been lost when heavy chunks of the station flattened houses or put huge holes in fields. From Genom they wanted repartitions and damages.  
  
Sylia was sympathetic but knew that a settlement would be disastrous. Her plan was to make sure the actions took as long as possible to resolve, if ever. It would be costly, but less than having to make payments. It was a tactic that disgusted her, literally buying time, but she had to do it. The lawyers more than agreed, their plans were to follow the methods of the tobacco and petroleum industries. They could be in the courts of decades.  
  
In the brief respite before her next meeting, she checked her mail and her frustration grew. There were half a dozen more messages about the latest incident at the factory site. This time the boomers had on the night before completed a piece of work which blocked off a human team from finishing theirs later. The night's work had to be dismantled. Everyone was yelling at each other and relations between workers and management were becoming strained. The schedule was falling further and further behind and that would not do. She quickly wrote up a fiery reply to the foreman to get back on track, or get another job.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The situation continued to deteriorate. The incidents continued and the schedule grew to be nearly a month behind. The construction schedule was set and reviewed each night, yet by morning something was always different. There was no trace of intruder access to Genom's computer systems and all internal checks failed to bring up any leads either. The workers began to grumble more openly and the problems appeared in the media. Gemon's already shaky stock price tumbled further and Sylia had to help out Candace in firefighting the increasing volume of calls received about the matter, ranging from the news corps to jittery investors, and even the government: local and national. This took Sylia away from trying to sort out the problem herself, and the IR Manager responsible was a firebrand, which only increased the tensions between the union workers and the rest of the company. Progress reports were not encouraging and the sharks could be seen circling. Secretly, Sylia contacted Nene and had her set up a network dragnet to try and catch who ever was changing the construction schedule. Thankfully, no real rogue boomer incidents had occurred, the trouble looking more like industrial sabotage. That however, did not comfort the Board of Directors. Elsewhere in the company, work continued as normal, but everyone could feel the tensions rising and a showdown looming.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
It was in Union Hall that old-hand worker Takeda Seijiro assembled the other senior construction crew team-leaders. The Union Official was with them and they all stood in a close circle.  
  
"This can't keep going on!" Seijiro said, thumping a fist into the palm of his other hand. "The suits have broken every assurance about working with boomers, they're up to something and we're the ones who are going to take the fall. It's just like 2029 when Toyota tried to mechanise the entire production facility. Tens of thousands of jobs would have been lost."  
  
"It's not as bad as that Mr. Takeda," the Official tried to placate. "The trouble here is damaging all of us and does need to be resolved, quickly."  
  
"Well it ain't happening. There's only one course of action to get the suits to take notice of us." Seijiro glowered. A grizzled veteran, his crinkled face remembered back to 2029 and the marches through the streets.  
  
"I know what you're thinking, but there are still other options open to us first. If we can get a meeting with Chairwoman Stingray, I'm sure this can be sorted out. She is very responsive to listening to the Union."  
  
"Ha! You've been trying all week, and have you got a meeting? No. They wont listen, its all just been lies and deceit to placate us until they're read to replace us all with boomers - no matter how dangerous they can be."  
  
"I remind you that your, our, livelihood depends on boomers. Genom is on unstable ground. You have to give me more time to get a meeting and a resolution. A strike will only make matters worse," the Official said gravely. An educated man, his father had saved his meager wages to send him to university, where he studied economics, he knew Genom's situation and how the rest of the growing foreign boomer industry was waiting to exploit Genom's downfall. If Genom went there would be no jobs for the thousands of employees. And he would have failed his father. A strike could lead to such a downfall.  
  
The crowd of men grumbled and discussed their options. Finally, Seijiro spoke again. "Our patience wears thin. We'll give you until the end of the week when we will meet again, but if another incident happens before then we will strike."  
  
The Official nodded. While he had misgivings, he had to support his members. That was his job.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nene chewed on her fingers.  
  
It wasn't a habit she had before, but it was one well ingrained now. Maybe she picked it up while waiting to be rescued on the island with Linna after their 'fun' trip into space to fight the superboomer Galatea. Now that had been fun, not. She was more than glad that the whole terrible thing was over and she and her friends were alive.  
  
Except for Priss. No one had been able to find her. They'd tracked her suit down to a remote desert area in northern China but Priss wasn't there. Any foot tracks had been blown away by the shifting sands and wind. It had been depressing, wondering what had happened to the grouchy singer. At least she was alive, they all thought, and that meant she wasn't dead, which would have been a lot worse to bear. However, not knowing didn't make her feel happy. Sylia said that Priss had probably walked away from them all for the last time. And why wouldn't she? Galatea was destroyed and all the boomers returned to their dumb normal selves. Other than the fake rogue boomer incident that had almost got Sylia killed a few weeks ago, there had been no real rogue boomer incidents reported. But that didn't mean it couldn't happen again, which Slyia was very worried about. That's why she now owned Genom and had her, Miss Cyberpunk, working on all sorts of computer problems that the other more mundane programmers couldn't handle - which meant basically all of them - now including searching for an intruders digital fingerprints on the construction schedule. Slyia had been very urgent in telling her to make the task her top priority. Sylia had so much on her mind to trouble her already that seeing her in an almost panic state meant that it was really serious. Serious enough that she decided to take time out of helping Nigel solve Mackey's aging problem.  
  
"Okay Mr. Platypus, lets see if anything happens tonight," the peroxide haired young-woman said. Weasel had been destroyed along with most of central Tokyo. She liked the Platypus, it was a very strange creature, like a cross between a duck and a beaver and all her work mates had asked what is was. They didn't quite get it, or her for that matter, most didn't know what a beaver was anyway, at least not in the way of a real beaver and not some slang term for.  
  
Nene put her mind back to Mackey. He boyfriend was back to normal, which was good, but also bad. He still looked the same, sounded the same, and would forever be that way. While she would age and her gorgeous looks would eventually go bad and people would say that she was a cradle snatcher. She wouldn't be able to handle that. She sighed. The work to solve Mackey's problem was going slow, but she was optimistic. Nigel was a smart man and Mackey was discovering more about boomer phiso-something or other all the time. Everything would be alright in the end, and they'd live happily ever after. Just like on the old stories. Nowadays the stories hardly ever had happy endings, even the children's ones. The world had become so depressing and gray.  
  
Work didn't make it any better. Linna being away, also. They didn't have fun like last year; blowing up boomers and fooling the ADP. At least she still got to work with Leon and call him names. But even that was less often. Genom was a much bigger organization than the ADP and it had become easy to loose track of people.  
  
She sighed.  
  
"C'mon, find something!" she said to the blank screen. In the background, she had half a dozen sniffer's running through Genom's network. It was late and only a few other people were logged into the network, half of them from remote or home locations. She had shadow's on all of them, but like Sylia she believed that who ever was causing all the trouble was on the inside.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi dried is hands with a paper towel, and scrunched it up and threw it into a bin. Leaving the Gents, he fished out the ID card that had a picture of one Susan Odawara, an Genom employee who had unfortunately died in Tokyo last year but had not been taken off the registry. A clever man, Satoshi had been able to find a few others such unfortunates, and see the uses of it. The admin department was so overworked with current activities that they hadn't had time to fix the records up.  
  
He returned to his terminal and logged in using his own ID and password. From there however he switched to using Susan's data and started accessing other computers, half a dozen in all in a chain, the last from where he would make his changes to the construction schedule.  
  
Fools! He thought of the network security people. None of them were good enough to stop him. They still didn't have a clue, little notes dropped by Itto had informed him of that and told him to continue. He listened to the talk in the corridors and by the water machines and knew that everyone was starting to get worried. People were talking about their jobs. Well, that would only make them more grateful when Itto took over and secured the company from that stupid Stingray woman. Genius obviously didn't run in their family, or at least not on the female side. Satoshi never had a good thought about women. They were tolerable as secretaries but didn't have the mental capacity and ethos to do real business work. Business was a man's world and had rules. Just like the Samurai ran the wars and had their bushido code. Women were not welcome. His actions would help restore Genom and put the women back to their rightful place in society.  
  
The window to the server handling the schedule came up. Satoshi cracked his fingers and wondered what he would modify this time.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Beep, beep, beep!  
  
Nene ran back to her office, spilling the hot liquid in a paper cup. She growled and dumped the entire thing into a bin.  
  
Beep, beep. The noise persisted.  
  
She sat down, awoke the screen and quickly found which sniffer was paging her. Her eyes widened in surprise.  
  
"Port 394! So, this guy thinks he's clever does he? Well, I'll show him."  
  
And the battle had begun.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
It was a rare thing, Sylia having time to drive. Rarer to do it in her own car, a sporty Alfa Romeo.  
  
Late, she got out onto the near deserted toll ways and let the throttle open. The roof of the car off, her long silver hair streamed out behind her like the trail of a falling star. Osaka-Kobe was a 'long' city and it allowed her to give the car a good work out. She barreled down the road at 100 miles an hour. Nothing ahead or behind her. A little black box specially mounted alerted her of any speed and toll way cameras, and disabled them while she was in range. For the time being, she was free.  
  
I should be getting sleep, she was thinking to herself. But sleep would have been impossible. Too many problems. The factory was becoming a real threat, and no one had any solutions. Until the intruder was stopped, or better, caught, the downward spiral would continue. She wanted to be more involved, she kept having to pass off the Union Official to a subordinate because more important and troublesome people were after her time, and that got her angry. When things went bad she had always been in a position to take care of it herself. He didn't like relying on others to do what she thought only she could handle. This looked like being one of those times.  
  
Her can phone rang.  
  
Who would call me at this hour? How knows that I'm out?  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Sylia!" Nene's high pitched voice shouted through the speaker, above the sound of the wind and road, "It's happening-"  
  
"What is?" Sylia overrode Nene.  
  
"Someone's trying to change the schedule. He's good."  
  
It would take half an hour to get to the Genom building from her location if she stuck to the speed limit, and another ten to get through to Nene's office.  
  
"I'm coming, I'll be there in ten minutes."  
  
Slyia slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel. Tyres squealed and the car spun around in gray smoke. She swapped her foot to the accelerator and depressed it to the floor. Like a rocket the car speed off, reaching 150 in a manner of seconds.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nene's fingers flew over the keyboard with much the same speed as Sylia's Alfa Romeo. The intruder she was up against was good, real good. But not good enough to beat her.  
  
She'd tried to net him but he'd caught on just in time and threw out a bunch of decoys. He hadn't run off, still trying to break through the security that protected the schedule. It was a silly move, an over confident one. She'd managed to eliminate half the decoys before he decided that sticking around was a bad idea and quickly shot out of the system and into another, trying to shake her tailgate.  
  
"Fat chance, boy. You don't know it yet, but you're up against The Pink Sabre!"  
  
Luckily, no one was around to hear her babble.  
  
The battle and chase ragged through the network. The intruder jumped from system to system, backtracked, and sent out more decoys. She put bloodhounds out and followed everything.  
  
She managed a call to Sylia, then discovered the signal she was after was a decoy. Luckily one of the bloodhounds identified the real intruder and she quickly got onto his tail.  
  
"You're mine. No one escapes me," she kept mumbling, eyes never from the screen.  
  
Sylia burst into the room.  
  
"What's happening?" she quickly rushed over to stand and look over Nene's shoulder. Nene didn't look away.  
  
"He's trying to get away. He didn't have time to change the schedule."  
  
Sylia tried to keep pace with the chase but even for a skilled user like her, she couldn't follow up.  
  
"Anything I can do?" she asked apprehensively.  
  
"No,"  
  
Sylia took a seat and watched and kept quiet. Nene needed all her concentration.  
  
"Haha! Gotcha," Nene exclaimed triumphantly. "Sysid coming in now."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi cursed. Who ever was on his trail was good, better than himself he had to concede. If it weren't so serious he'd like to meet him - there was no way he could comprehend that it was a nineteen-year-old girl - but it was serious and he had to escape.  
  
He watched in dismay as Susan Odawara's record was snatched away. He wouldn't be able to use it again and the others might be at risk as well. Time to leave. First, he needed a distraction.  
  
Slowing just a little, he pulled out a disk from his shoulder bag and slipped it into the disk drive. Accessing the shocker he brought it online and sent it against is pursuit.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
A blue spark came out of the keyboard.  
  
"What was that?!" Sylia shouted in alarm.  
  
"Ow!" Nene yelped, fingers jumping away from the keyboard. "That - grrr!!!!" The girl scowled, angry, and her fingers went back to work. "I'll teach you!"  
  
Sylia started, amazed. More sparks, a little lightning storm, played all over the keyboard. It smelt. She saw Nene's hair start to stand on end.  
  
"Nene!"  
  
Despite the shocks, Nene didn't take her hands away. She wasn't going to let a pest like a shocker let the intruder get away. On the fly she created shields and masks and an attack of her own. It was quite impressive. When it was ready, done in only a few seconds, she launched her attack.  
  
The attack broke through the shocker's security and gained her control. In a nanosecond she turned it on the intruder and let him have a taste of his own medicine.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi screamed as a powerful surge raced up his hands and arms into his body. He flew back from the chair, shaking.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Got him!" Nene started to trace the intruder's signal back to the original machine.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi saw the trace. Legs weak he stumbled to the machine. Proxy after proxy was found and he saw his doom. He wouldn't be able to get to the machine in time and log off. He'd be caught. He'd fail.  
  
"I won't let that happen!" and energy surged through him. He lunged for the power cords-  
  
three.  
  
two.  
  
one.  
  
The screen went blank.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Noooo!!!" Nene screamed and her fists rained down onto the keyboard.  
  
"What happened?" Sylia gasped.  
  
"He got away!" the blonde sulked.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi got his bag, plugged the cords back in and turned off his machine before it had time to boot. He quickly vacated the Genom building with his bag.  
  
He forgot about the disk in the drive.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The next day came quickly.  
  
Sylia was in her vertigo-inspiring office looking over the records of one Susan Odawara. The employee's supervisor and the HR Manager were both with her.  
  
"I haven't seen her since we moved to Tokyo, Ma'am," the supervisor was saying, "the move and all was hectic - what with replacing those we lost."  
  
"My records still have her on our payroll. She might have been transferred to another department,"  
  
"However," Sylia said, "her address still says Tokyo, and central Tokyo." Which meant inside the Quarantine Zone. "I want you to find out what is going on and quickly. Does Mrs. Odawara still work here and where does she live, or if not -"  
  
"We'll get right on it, Ma'am," the supervisor said. Not that he didn't have enough work to do already, but the boss was looking angry and had put it as their top priority. With all that was going on, it wouldn't be good to disobey. They left.  
  
Sylia sunk back into her chair. She wanted to go and stand by the window but there was too much to do. She rang up Nene.  
  
"Anything new?" she asked. Nene hadn't left the building. She knew she was driving the girl, but with the breakthrough she had to keep pressing. Nene would get time off when it was over.  
  
"I'm going through the entire network looking for the intruder's fingerprints."  
  
"How long will it take?"  
  
"There's thousands of machines Sylia." came back Nene's tired voice.  
  
"Let me know if you find anything." And she cancelled the connection.  
  
Susan Odawara. It was a bona fide employee record on the outside, but her instincts told her that something was up, wasn't kosher. She'd thought about sending some security men to Susan's Tokyo address, but decided against it. A permit was required to enter the Quarantine Zone and she doubted anything beyond boomer carcasses and rubble would be found. If Susan existed and wasn't just a made up employee, she was probably dead like many others. In Tokyo, Genom had hundreds of boomers in its offices. When Galatea took control of them and began the rampage, Genom had suffered heavily. Hundreds died as buildings were taken over. The list of dead still wasn't set for the tragedy. She wondered what it would have been like, trapped by mutating boomers, in some building or office. Boomer's were Genom's best friends, the life blood of the company. The propaganda had been so effective to the whole world that no one at Genom would have believed in rouge boomers. Their bodies would have littered the corridors like broken dolls.  
  
Sylia shook her head and wiped away the tears that had come unbidden to her eyes. It was because of that terror she was doing what she did. Galatea had been created once, it could happen again. Boomers could still go rogue. A new outbreak could occur anywhere in the world now that other countries were ready to produce their own copies - ones that wouldn't be as safe as the dangerous ones now. It was a catastrophe waiting to happen.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The Union Official looked up at the towering Genom building. It rose up and up, covered in glass. Sylia would be there, at the top. This time he wasn't going to be passed down to some deaf lackey. If she didn't listen to him the workers wouldn't take it any more. There would be a strike.  
  
He walked into the lobby and almost bumped into Marketing Director Itto. He bowed and apologized.  
  
"Sorted out your workers yet?" Itto said snidely.  
  
"If your side doesn't take this matter seriously Mr. Itto, there will be trouble," he retorted.  
  
"Don't tell me, you'll go on strike?"  
  
Itto got a cold stare in return, which made him wonder.  
  
"It's up to Sylia," he said and giving another bow, left Itto in his thoughts and made for the elevator. He wouldn't leave without seeing Sylia.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto tapped his chin. He had an opportunity. The workers were ready to go on strike then, his work was paying off. Time to give matters that last nudge.  
  
He pulled his cell phone out.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi looked at the message. He knew it had come from Itto, no one else would give him such an order. He also knew that Itto had not sent the message himself, but through outs, yet the origin was easily determined. He also knew what was going to happen to him. But he was a member of the male business world and knew its rules and code. He was faithful to his company and boss.  
  
With time short, he got right to work breaking into the elevator system.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Beeping again alerted Nene. While her mind a little dulled from exhaustion, she began her trace.  
  
"Elevators?" she said confused. By then it was too late.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The Official steeled himself for the confrontation that was going to take place. He had an appointment, knew that it was going to be with someone who wouldn't listen. Unless he kept going, ignored the secretary and went directly into the Chairwoman's office and got to the matter right away. It was a very un-Japanese thing to do, but it had to be done. Sylia would understand and the worker situation would be resolved. There wouldn't be reason for a strike, Genom would continue and everyone would keep their jobs.  
  
He watched the LED count up the numbers towards floor 104. 86, 87,  
  
The elevator shuddered. It stopped moving. Then it dropped a floor and halted.  
  
He looked around, alarm all over his face. He listened, it was quiet, still. Slowly he started to reach out for the phone-button.  
  
The floor fell away.  
  
He screamed.  
  
The elevator plummeted.  
  
In fell nearly one hundred floors before exploding apart on the bottom with a tremendous crash. Fortunately, the Official had passed out before his body was pulverized.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia didn't even hear of fell the demise. It was a second after when her phone rang and she picked it up to hear Nene's horrified voice.  
  
"Sylia, Sylia!"  
  
"What is it, Nene?"  
  
"It's terrible, the intruder's struck again and-"  
  
"What?"  
  
Then, Sylia's secretary burst into the room. Her face was pale. Slowly, Sylia stood up from her chair.  
  
"The elevator fell! And there was someone in it,"  
  
Sylia's face hardened. "No one leaves the building!" She ordered.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The knowledge quickly spread through the entire building, as bad news and gossip does. Sylia raced down in another elevator, after Nene had assured her that it was secure, to the bottom basement level where she met with a medical team and security, and surveyed the disaster. Behind her, someone threw up, and she too could feel the paleness in her face. She turned to Leon.  
  
"Who ever did this could still be in the building, Nene is finding out which terminal was used to do this unforgivable act."  
  
"The we can view the camera footage and get a face," Leon finished Sylia's thoughts.  
  
"Yes. Hopefully the perpetrator didn't get out before your men locked the building."  
  
"Even so, Sylia, he could still be trying. There are other ways into and out of here," said Leon.  
  
Sylia nodded. "Get to it, I'll be with Nene."  
  
Sylia took another elevator a few levels up and briskly walked into Nene's office where Chief Roland and a few other security officers were standing around.  
  
"Okay, what've you got?" she said announcing herself.  
  
"I got an alarm from one of my sniffers," said Nene. "It matched today's attack with last night, so it's the same person. But I was too late,"  
  
"It's not your fault, Nene. HR is looking into Susan Odawara but I don't believe that she'll be found responsible. I doubt she's still alive, but certainly not working for us anymore." Sylia consoled practically.  
  
"He wasn't careful this time, the trace should be done soon."  
  
"But he'll have been smart enough to leave as soon as he had done the task," said the Chief. "If he didn't do it remotely-"  
  
"Oh, he was here alright. I would have picked him up if he'd tried to come in from an outside system. Done!" Nene proclaimed.  
  
All of them looked at a screen which came up with a 3D floor plan of the building, racing to the seventy third floor and to a large room. One of the terminals was coloured in red, the others were just outlines. Next Nene pulled up the file for the owner of the terminal.  
  
"Gen Satoshi,"  
  
Roland flipped open his phone and ordered the nearest team to get to the terminal.  
  
"Ah," Nene announced, "this has to be it. I just scanned the drives and found the shocker he tried to get me with last night. He must have forgotten about it."  
  
Sylia sped read the personnel file. She didn't like what she saw. "How could a marketing employee be so proficient with computers? He has a clean record."  
  
"Hired in '34." Roland said. It didn't mean anything though, just that he'd been around for a while and was a young man.'  
  
"Get his supervisor and HR in your office Roland. I want to know everything about this man by midday."  
  
Roland nodded and left the room to make the arrangements.  
  
"Marketing seems to be involved in everything these days," Nene said rather absently.  
  
That got Sylia thinking. She remembered the boomer attack. Marketing's director, Itto, had been there. For a moment her paranoid mind wondered. but then, Itto had been in as much danger as she had. Almost. The controlled boomers had gone after her deliberately, everyone one was just collateral damage.  
  
"Do we know who died?" Nene asked.  
  
"No," Sylia had forgotten all about the victim, considering herself to be one just as much. Someone had died. An employee. It would be a blow for the company. She sat on the edge of Nene's desk and chewed on a thumb, thinking. Why had the attacker decided to strike at the building and not the construction site? Was it because Nene had picked up on him? A resultant change of tactics? Why death, no one had been injured before, killing someone know would increase the stacks and danger. Everyone would know that the elevator would be deliberate. unless she said that it had just been an accident. That could be best, for the company. If word got out that it was a deliberate attack it would be all over the media and her troubles would be worse than ever. The employees would also be extremely worried about their safety. It could paralyse the company entirely. But if it was just an accident the damage would be less. It was a decision she had to take. She called up Candace and told her what to say. She didn't notice the unsure and sick looking look on Nene's listening face, or if she did, she mistook it for the death.  
  
"Find out everything you can," she ordered an exhausted and frightened Nene. Then she left, returning to her own office.  
  
On the way in she tasked her secretary to find out who had been killed, then got to her desk and sat and down and buried her face in her hands, face behind silver hair, hiding the sudden redness that marred her otherwise beautiful features. If someone saw her, they would find her quite terrible to behold.  
  
'What is going on? Someone must be trying to destroy Genom, but who? The charity event and now this, someone on the inside. Or from the outside but hired or turned Satoshi. Did he have any weaknesses, gambling, women? How much would he know - about the ones who hired him - he wouldn't be doing it himself.  
  
Her mind ran through the scenarios.  
  
Her phone rang. She picked it up.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"They've been able to identify the body, ma'am. It was the Union."  
  
Sylia stopped listening.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Word got out to the construction site and the response was swift and unanimous. The workers went on strike.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia called an emergency meeting in the boardroom. Everyone came quickly and all they could talk about, in hushed tones, was how terrible the day had been. Sylia scanned Itto's face but she couldn't see anything behind his eyes. He looked as alarmed as much as the others. Maybe she was just being paranoid.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's get started," she began and the talk ceased. "A terrible tragedy happened this morning. A death by accident is a terrible thing," only she and security knew what had really happened, "and shouldn't be taken lightly. However, this time is even worse. The victim was the Union Official for the construction teams who are building the factory that will save this company. I have just been informed that the workers have gone on strike, when they learnt of the news, and have blockaded the site and some even attacked boomers. Candace," she turned to the French PR woman, "how has the response been?"  
  
Candace tried to give an optimistic smile. "It's not bad so far, mostly council calls but that will change when the media get hold of it and now with the strike." she didn't have to add that the lines would be flooded. "I suggest that we make a public announcement instead of waiting."  
  
Sylia shook her head. "That will only increase the pressure. Just keep towing the line I've instructed."  
  
"But if the workers or Union start making claims-" Itto jumped in.  
  
Too eagerly for Sylia's taste. "Union's always make ridiculous claims. We've had a good relationship with them up until now. I wanted the matter resolved but somehow it continued to get out of hand. The Official was on his way here, to see, me the records from the elevator tell." Sylia regretted saying that, while she didn't say anything deliberate had happened, people might over think and jump to correct conclusions. "The Union wants this matter resolve as much as we do,"  
  
"To their own benefit," someone said.  
  
It was too much for Sylia. She slammed her fist on the hardwood table and glared about the room. Everyone looked shocked.  
  
"And there is nothing wrong with that! They do what they think is best, just as we do. And it is finger pointing like that which as lead up to this crisis," she nearly shouted. The person who spoke sunk back into his chair. Sylia thought about apologizing, she didn't mean to essentially blame him for the death, but she didn't. She was too angry and didn't fully comprehend how the others were looking at her.  
  
"The problems this company is facing are enough to destroy it. I won't let that happen. Genom is too important." Sylia continued.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto and Candace sat on the lounge and looked out to across the city.  
  
"She looked quite mad," Candace was saying.  
  
"I'd heard rumours," Itto added. Sylia's display had played right into his hands, the rest of the board were more worried about her than what could happen to Genom. He'd assured them that Genom would still be around after the meeting on the elevator trip down. Everyone was very nervous during the right and so more responsible to what he had to say.  
  
Candace too was optimistic. She had a good idea that what was going was Itto's plan to take control. She saw that with some prodding that it could do far more and bring Genom down. She had picked up that Sylia had a good idea of what was going on as well, which made her cautious. Sylia would be doing her best to find the perpetrators so she didn't want to get involved just yet and find herself being caught. Each small blow would weaken Genom in anycase until the foundations were too weak to hold up the tower and it would come crashing down.  
  
"Still, a strike is bad." Said Itto.  
  
"Do you have a way of stopping it?" Candace inquired. She put her hand on his knee.  
  
Surprisingly, Itto ignored the hand. He was too deep in thought. He was wondering what Satoshi was doing now. Another supporter had told him that Satoshi had been found out and fled right after causing the Union Officials death. Unfortunately, that also meant an end to Satoshi and his usefulness. He had an idea. He stood up and looked down at his foreign piece of flesh. She looked back at him, disappointed that nothing else was going to happen. Women were so predictable.  
  
"It's best that we do get back to work. I'm sure that you have enough," he told her.  
  
Candace gave a sigh and stood as well. Her perfectly designed expression read: maybe tonight? While her mind wondered what Itto was up to. She'd like to know and bed always loosened men's tongues.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi had just managed to get out of the huge building and into a taxi. He took it to a subway station and then went across town to Kobe where he got a change of clothes and found a busy meal hall to figure out his next moves.  
  
The former marketing professional, he knew that his career was over. Even if his boss did become Chairman, he would not be able to rejoin Genom. Whoever had found him out had ended that hope. Still, his usefulness to Genom wasn't over. He hadn't heard about the strike and decided that the construction site should be his next and last target. He found a netcafe and picked a machine that was hidden behind a drape, one usually restricted to surfers who looked up more flesh focused websites than the one he broke into: a small boomer maintenance company. He pulled the readouts for the machines and wrote down a list of the equipment he would need.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia let her directors continue with their mundane work while she returned to Nene.  
  
"It was Satoshi. We've got footage of him doing it, and unfortunately leaving the premises," Leon informed her. "We've got men tracking the taxi he took."  
  
"Needle in a haystack," said Sylia.  
  
"There's not much else we can do," Leon shrugged. He stopped talking when Sylia gave him a withering glare.  
  
"There is always something!"  
  
Nene and Leon exchanged glances.  
  
"What has Roland found out about this Satoshi character?" asked Sylia.  
  
"He's still in the meeting. Not much more than what the file will say I believe, however. His type will be perfect employee so they aren't suspected."  
  
"Do we know who hired him?"  
  
"Oh," Nene said with some cheer, boy, did the room need it, "that's easy. He went through a . three stage interview. The last was with the Director of Marketing, and he made the decision."  
  
Sylia folded her arms and ground her teeth. People were loyal to the ones that hired them. Not a fool, she had some idea that Itto wasn't at all happy about her being in charge. Still, it was a big leap to think that he'd order a murder just to get rid of her. Or would he? Being a Knight Sabre never had so many difficulties. The enemy there was clear cut: Galatea and Genom. Galatea was gone, Genom remained. She chuckled, maybe the world hadn't changed that much.  
  
"I want you to stat looking into Itto, discretely of course. Don't involve anyone else. Maybe I should call Daley back, he'd be perfect for the job."  
  
"And Linna, too?" Nene asked hopefully.  
  
"I'll think about it," and she would. It looked like she was going to need a lot more than Leon's hardsuit team to take care of Genom's problems. Rogue boomers seemed to be on the bottom of the list of enemies she had to worry about.  
  
"I'm going to the construction site."  
  
"That could be dangerous," warned Leon.  
  
"There's plenty of Security and the Police will be there as well. I don't think the workers will get violent. But I do have to stop the strike and get the construction back on schedule."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Candace was back in her office and was mulling over what she could do. All her staff were taking care of the calls and handing out the line Sylia had given to her: the death was an accident. The strike was unfortunate, they didn't say if there was a link between the two.  
  
Sylia's loss of control had surprised her considerably. She'd never thought that the woman could loose her cool, explosively. She wondered if there was some mental problem. It could of course just be stress, but she'd like to think that it was more. It would make her job a lot easier. It also meant that Sylia was venerable, and that she could exploit. On the other hand, it meant she could be unpredictable, which could be dangerous.  
  
She smiled. A little risk, a little danger. Part of the job that she liked. She wondered about Itto then. If he succeeded and Sylia was gone, while she knew a lot about the capricious man, she knew for a fact that he would hardly listen to her once he was in charge. She'd just be his affair. But if she got close to a venerable Sylia, being both women, she might have more influence. Sylia looked so alone, doubtfully had a shoulder to lean on and a face to confide with. Her little acts of innuendo were working, last weeks hadn't drawn any rebuke. That would be new for her as well. She was sure her benefactors in France would approve. It would be a French thing to do. Applauded.  
  
"How then, to expose Itto and get rid of him?"  
  
Her smiled curved, delicious. This job was becoming better all the time.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The road into the construction site was blocked by a large crowd of chanting workers. Placards waved in the air. A ring of policemen made sure the strikers couldn't go any further up the road and disturb other activities.  
  
Sylia drummed her fingers on the bonnet of a car while the foreman explained what had happened.  
  
"Who do I speak to then" she asked him. She didn't care about his story. She just wanted a resolution.  
  
"I think they have a committee. We haven't let any other Union officials in so its just workers."  
  
"Well, lead the way."  
  
"What? It's too dangerous."  
  
"I'll go myself then," and she did, walking away from the car and towards the mob. She pushed her way through the thin line of policemen. She had placed Lt. Haruga's squad a bloc away in case any violence did happen. Haruga and another of his men walked a few paces behind her.  
  
A missile flew out from the crowd, but she avoided it deftly. There was shouting in the crowd, between themselves. They recognized her. No more missiles came and she stopped a few meters away.  
  
"I want to speak to who's in charge of this strike."  
  
"We wont negotiate until all the boomers are gone!" someone yelled.  
  
"No boomers! Get rid of the boomers!" others added.  
  
"Boomers are the reason you still have jobs!" she yelled back at them. "Without the plant that you are building, Genom will fail and everyone of us will lose their jobs. I've got money, I can keep on living. What about you?"  
  
"Lies! Rubbish!"  
  
"Let her through," a commanding voice ordered. The crowd parted, at the other end a small cluster of men waited. Maybe the strike committee. Sylia walked through. Everyone went silent as she passed. They stared at her. Her beauty. Her reputation.  
  
"Determined woman," came a whisper.  
  
"Quiet!" a response.  
  
The two security men followed.  
  
"Who do we have here?" Sylia directed to the committee.  
  
The elder of the group took a step forward. "My names Seijiro. You can talk to me."  
  
"Well then, Seijiro. What is the reason for this strike?"  
  
"You damn well know, Chairwoman. There have been problems for weeks and today we heard that our official was killed."  
  
"He died in an unfortunate accident," Sylia replied.  
  
"That still doesn't change our grievances. We've been trying to solve this but your foreman and managers weren't listening. They kept bringing in more boomers and messing the schedule. We had strict rules about the schedule and they were broken."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi put down the binoculars. He was glad to have bought them, allowing him to find a back way into the construction site, and now to see that Sylia had arrived. He grinned to himself and scuttled down some scaffolding to his target: a trio of inactive boomers.  
  
He was a little disappointed that the strike had gone on ahead without him starting it, but now he had a better target to eliminate instead of some workers. The Chairwoman herself! Itto would be ecstatic if she were to die in another 'accident'. While having lunch he recalled the rogue boomer incident in Tokyo. With his knowledge, it wouldn't be difficult to fake another incident. The workers were all afraid of it happening. There was a lot of police about, but they wouldn't have the firepower to take the boomer down quickly enough before it had squashed the bitch.  
  
Coming up behind the boomers, he got to work immediately. With all the boomer details, it wouldn't take long to let him remote control them.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The two arguing sides decided to find somewhere to sit down where they could negotiate properly. They went to the foreman's office, air conditioned, and got to work.  
  
"I think it would be in your interests if you had a proper official negotiating for you," Sylia said.  
  
Seijiro wanted to object but the others ruled him out. "Our demands are easy enough. A return to the previous agreement, less boomers."  
  
"That may be impossible now. Work is so far behind that without an increase in boomer involvement, the factory wont be completed on time."  
  
"Hire more workers."  
  
Hagura motioned for his RRT soldier and they left the trailer-room office. "God, that is boring to listen to," he said.  
  
"Better to put guns to their heads," the RRT soldier said. "That'll make 'em agree."  
  
"I doubt its legal."  
  
The soldier grunted.  
  
"Everything looks fine here, I can handle it myself. Go back to the mobile pit and tell them to stand down."  
  
They saluted. While a paramilitary force, the former ADP officers had decided to notch up their discipline. Haruga was left alone. He rubbed his chest. The wound he'd received in Sierra Leone wouldn't heal fully and left a tightness about his chest when he exerted himself. Like a loss of breath. He hoped it wouldn't get any worse, he really liked working for Sylia. The toys they got to play with where amazing. Easily better than the military.  
  
Thumps came from behind him and a shadow fell over.  
  
He turned around, and saw the swinging arm of a boomer come down right at him.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The talks had ceased until the official arrived. The workers were in a huddle at one end of the room in quiet discussion and she was at the other with a paper cup of water in hand. She looked around for her security and remembered that they were outside.  
  
The windows had the blinds folded shut. She used her fingers to part two panes and her eyes went wide.  
  
"Boomer!" she gasped.  
  
The trailer office shook.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
The roof caved in. Voices yelled and screamed. Glass shattered.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"That's it! Die!" Satoshi sniggered. He watched in satisfaction as the boom raised up its arms, long metal girder held, and swung it down on the top of the trailer again.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The strikers and police heard the noise and turned to face it.  
  
"A boomer's gone rogue!" and the cry went up. The strikers fled towards the police who tried to get through them but were unable. Haruga's teammate was caught up in the rout. He looked back and tried to force his way through. He saw the boomer smash open the trailer. He didn't have a weapon, nothing. He turned around and shared shoving, hoping that the others knew what was going on.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia screamed. The roof stopped falling about half a foot from her face. It was bashed in all over. Blood ran down from her temple where she'd knocked it against a flying chair. Outside she heard the boomer grumble and growl.  
  
She looked about. The door had been ripped off and a few feet of opening lay exposed. She could get through and make a run for it. She didn't know if the others were alive or dead.  
  
She decided she had to get out. She didn't want to be crushed to death. Rescue would be not far away.  
  
She crawled towards the exit.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi saw her slip out of the trailer. His boomer was on the other side and had finished flattening the far end of it. His target was escaping, in fact, heading towards him. Good idea. He made sure the boomer stayed on her back and kept her coming towards him. He looked around and saw a crowbar. Maybe he'd have the satisfaction of killing her himself. Too bad it wasn't a sword. Then it he could be a real Samurai.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia ran.  
  
She gasped for breath, completely out of shape. The boomer thundered behind her, gaining. It had discarded the beam and swiped at her retreating back. She made for the incomplete building.  
  
She reached it just in time. That didn't make her stop running though. She wanted to get in deep and then work her way back outside. She expected the Grasshoppers to arrive at any time. Until then she had to stay alive.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Satoshi saw her. He forgot about the boomer and ran down stairs towards Sylia. She saw him.  
  
"Over here!" he yelled, "This way, hurry!"  
  
She listened. He got ready to smack her head in.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia saw the man and motion. It was better than nothing. She couldn't hear the boomer over the earthquake noise her heart made. It had to be close behind. Where were the Grasshoppers?  
  
She was a few meters from the man. She wondered why he was smiling.  
  
She wondered why he had a metal bar in his hands and was bringing it up.  
  
She saw his face. Knew it.  
  
The bar came racing towards her.  
  
Sylia leapt to the side. Still, she was hit and she grunted, pain racing along her shoulder. She crashed into the ground but had the wits to keep moving and she rolled away. Metal rang against metal as the bar slammed down where she had been. She came up on her feet and went into a crouch, facing Satoshi.  
  
"You don't have to do this, Satoshi."  
  
He snarled, ran at her.  
  
She dodged behind a pylon. Sparks flew. Around it she kicked at his knee and he yelled in pain. She backed away, didn't have the wind to last in a fight.  
  
"Who do you work for?" she shouted at him, "Who?"  
  
"Don't you worry, I'll tell you just before you die!" and he came at her again and forced her back.  
  
He was too quick and got in close. She caught his next blow on her forearms, numbing them instantly. He pulled back for another swing. She lunged and they both fell in a tumble.  
  
She was on top. She straddled him and punched down into his face. His nose broke and blood spilled out. He growled at her. Then she was falling, immense pain against her skull. He rolled up top and held the bar in both hands, ready to thrust it down.  
  
Blood spurted all over her. His. She blinked it away and saw a long white metal dark sticking through him. He gurgled, foamy blood, and fell off her. Behind, coming into focus, she saw one of the Grasshopper suits.  
  
About time. she closed her eyes.  
  
Dimly she heard voices and feet running. Then she lost consciousness.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Too bad Satoshi is dead," Chief Roland said.  
  
"It was him or Sylia." Leon grimaced.  
  
"I'm not saying it was the wrong choice-"  
  
"Well," Sylia groaned, opening her puffy eyes, "that's good to hear."  
  
"Sylia!" Nene shot out of her chair and raced over to the edge of the hospital bed.  
  
"How do you fell?" asked Leon.  
  
"Probably as bad as I must look,"  
  
Leon chuckled. It was good he hadn't gone all gooey like Nene was, practically smothering her.  
  
"What happened?" she asked.  
  
"All hell broke loose, that's what," Leon started. "We thought it was a rogue boomer, but this Satoshi character had rigged it. When he went after you it just stopped and that confused Haruga's men. When they realized it was almost too late for you. Thankfully not."  
  
"I agree," Sylia tried to smile. She hoped her face didn't look too bad. At least both her eyes were okay. "What about the men in the trailer?"  
  
"Alive, hurt, but alive. Lt Haruga's dead. The boomer killed him first."  
  
"I'm sorry. He was a good man."  
  
Roland and Leon nodded.  
  
"Its all over the news too, Sylia" said Nene. "This time they know it wasn't a rogue boomer but some madman."  
  
Sylia nodded weakly.  
  
"You should rest," Roland said. "Matters are being taken care of-"  
  
"Who by?" she asked.  
  
"Your PR woman, LeCourviere."  
  
"Not Itto?"  
  
Heads shook.  
  
"Fine. Let her handle it for today. Right now, I want to go back to sleep again. I feel dreadful."  
  
"You look it too!" Nene offered.  
  
Leon grabbed the blonde by the shoulders and forcibly removed her from the room. "Leon, don't be such a pooh!" and they were gone.  
  
Sylia stared up at the ceiling, grateful to be alone. She wasn't going to sleep. She needed to think. Satoshi had deliberately tried to kill her. Someone in Tokyo had as well. Her security had saved her, just, on both occasions, along with rescuing Linna and Daley as well (though she didn't think there was any relation there). But she couldn't rely on that being the case all the time. The attacks would continue, someone was after her, or maybe many. She didn't doubt that. Competitors would want Genom out of the way. Someone in Genom wanted her out of the way. She had to find out, and quickly. She might not survive another chance.  
  
What then, to do.  
  
She thought all night.  
  
NOTES:  
  
This chapter is way longer than I originated. The story is also way different that I first thought it would be. It was going to be called the Proletariat and concentrate more on the workers and the strike but I couldn't feel that come along well, and not be very exciting. So Satoshi, who needed to be more involved, expanded and so did Nene against him and the story really started to fire up in pace. I wrote about 60% in two days after the first part of it taking some weeks (that's how interesting it felt to me!). So I'm glad that it turned out a bit better and created some interesting future plot ideas on Candace and her roles with Itto and Sylia, and Sylia's response to her threats. I know that I have to get away from the Grasshoppers saving the day all the time, its too cliché and this series is not meant to be that!! At least Sylia got some action, and Nene too in her element. Hopefully future scenarios will be shorter (I think any more than 5000 words per chapter to read on a PC is too much and this is 12K+) and well focused on the problems and characters. The Linna/Daley pit probably doesn't need to exist here at all.. it was to help pad out the story but I really didn't need to do that in the end. It'll stay cause I want to work more on it later. Daley tends to get the short shift. This series aims to get more involvement out of the other characters: they do really have the best skills for what's going to happen.  
  
Saraba ja,  
  
SurfingSpider  
  
/\/\ss/\/\ 


	4. Hearts & Minds part 1

Hearts and Minds I  
  
It was Daley who gave her the news.  
  
"We're going back to Tokyo," he had said standing in the doorway of her office.  
  
She had jumped up for joy. Between the two of them, her desire to return home was open. Six weeks in Sierra Leone was more than enough, she felt, despite the good intentions of her work. Trying to determine what a third- world strife-torn country was too much for her young years and need for modernity. The job was too big, there were so many petitions and meetings and places to see - Linna thought that she had more work to do than Sylia herself. Sylia only had a single company to run, Sierra Leone had thousands, and millions of people who now looked to Genom for survival.  
  
"I can't wait to get back home," she had gleefully said to Daley. He had been nonchalant, as he often was, replying: "To all the paperwork that has been piling up since we were away." Linna didn't let that fact dampen her spirits. When the day was done she immediately went back to her hotel room and packed up everything. In less than thirty-six hours she was going to be back in Japan, home!  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia closed her eyes for a moment to rest them.  
  
Despite having a headache, caused by being hit in the head by a metal pipe some days ago and supplemented by her continuing to work - which meant reviewing reports, requests, articles, and problems - from her 106th floor suite, the Chairwoman and CEO of Genom Corporation JPLTC, did not want to (as some would say, she would say she had no choice) get some rest, even though it was 11pm and the wondrous skyline from the wall-height windows was full of blinking red and blue lights, reflected over and over by the glass exteriors of office towers as big as her own, called out siren-like to distract her.  
  
In a few minutes an analyst discussion would be shown and the topic was her company, Genom. By default, that meant she would be talked about as well, and Sylia always liked to know what people thought about her, good or bad. Like any person, she liked only to hear favourable reviews, but she was also realistically pragmatic. Genom and her fate were irreversibly entwined. She was sure the discussion would be mentioned tomorrow, and Candace would definitely bring it up, after all, the blond French knockout always kept her finger on the pulse that was Genom's PR.  
  
The anchor of the financial news program hosting the discussion announced it and Sylia put down the expense report that had been keeping her tiring eyes open.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Tonight's roundtable discussion is about the Genom Corporation. Japan's largest boomer producer, Genom has been involved in the middle of a terrorist strike that destroyed central Tokyo, had its core product: boomers, been proclaimed as unsafe. In general, the company that was on top of the world, is now seemingly falling apart at the seems despite the change of CEO to energetic Sylia Stingray, daughter of the father of boomers.  
  
"With me to discuss Genom's past and more importantly its future, are four experts and correspondents. There is; Suzuhara Fujimori of Japan Global Insurance, Brendan Cartwright of the English language newspaper News Of The World, Masamune Kisagari who is head of Sony Research and Development, and George Negus, noted business reporter for CNNNN.  
  
"Mr Kisagara, let me first ask you this question: what are boomers, why did they make Genom what it was, and how have they contributed to the fall of Genom now?"  
  
Kisagara: "Boomers are sophisticated robots. Dr Stingray was their inventor. He envisioned a sophisticated program, bordering on sentience some would say - although this has not been achieved - that would benefit mankind by performing all the menial and dangerous tasks that were before their introduction, performed by humans. Boomer's benefits of superior strength and tirelessness were shown clearly during the first rebuilding of Tokyo, after The Great Quake. Coupled with aggressive pricing, Genom was able to saturate the market with them and ensure no competition could match their product. The terrorist atrocity of last year probably has no boomer connection, so I would say that boomers have not created Genom's problems. Recent admissions of them going out of control are alarming, but it is Genom's more fundamental problems that are causing it trouble, and a new wave of competition."  
  
Moderator: "So then, Mr Fujimiro, Genom's problems are?"  
  
Fujimori: "Clearly its complicity, or negligence in the terrorist strike. The government has all but blamed its former Chairman for the incident that cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. In fact, the economic cost will not be fully known until Tokyo has been rebuilt and returns to normal, which could take up to a decade. Genom, like many other corporations was badly affected with casualties and destroyed facilities. The cost of moving, legal and insurance claims, have all combined to put the company on the brink of destruction."  
  
Moderator: "Mr Cartwright, Mr Kisagara mentioned new competition. Where did this competition come from, and what is its impact on Genom's weakening monopoly?"  
  
Cartwright: "As you say, Genom used to have a monopoly position on boomer production. That now has changed and it is mostly Genom's fault. Dozens of top researchers and scientists have left the company to be snatched up by rival firms from all over the world who want in on the lucrative boomer business. At the moment Genom is still in the lead but that will quickly change as these competitors get their production lines in gear, and Genom's recent labour issues and near death of its Chairwoman on two occasions only serves to distract them from doing business. Genom is in dire straights, and while I commend Ms Stingray for taking on the task of restructuring the corporation, I don't think a twenty-seven year-old former lingerie shop owner whose father just happens to be the inventor of boomer technology will be able to steady the boat."  
  
Moderator: "Mr Cartwright brings up an interesting point, which I would like to pose to you, Mr Negus. You have met Sylia Stringray, and in dire circumstances. Tell us about her, is she just a 'former lingerie shop owner', or does she have what it takes?"  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia watched with held breath - unconsciously - as George allowed a little laugh before speaking. "If getting the both of us away from rogue boomers is any indication, then she has more than enough moxie. However, I'm sure that the people she had to deal with, outside and insider her own company, are far more dangerous than any boomer. Sylia Stingray is a tough and resourceful woman who has placed herself into a very difficult situation. Governments, competition, lawsuits, they're all trying to bring down what was the powerhouse megacorporation of our time. Just her intention to try and save Genom should be all the proof anyone needs that she is serious. After the death of the previous Chairman, Genom tried to hire out and there were no takers. Rumours of internal politicking abounded and the company looked like it was going to spiral out of control and become the largest corporate crash in the history of mankind."  
  
"That can still happen," Fujimori said.  
  
"Of course," George rapidly continued, not liking the interruption, nor Fujimori, as Sylia could see on his face with astounding clarity, "But it won't because of Sylia. I'm impressed with this young woman, my dad would have said that she's got two great brass ones-"  
  
Sylia coughed loudly, then cleared her throat, smiling afterwards.  
  
"The Stingray genes have passed on into her. Already we've seen Genom recover from its hemorrhaging or staff and talent. Its become more forthcoming with information, Genom of old would never have admitted to rogue boomers and the lack of Genom propaganda is starkly evident. Sylia is cleaning up the company and going a good job. If Genom succeeds it will be because of her, a lingerie store owner as you said. But she has to keep a tight reign on Genom. I'm sure that there are many high level executives that don't like having to take orders from a woman - irrespective of previous occupation - and another Stingray."  
  
"Thank you, gentlemen, for your answers. After the break we will continue and discuss the new competition Genom is going to have to face. From Europe we have the French-Holland BMC, India's Labourmen and the American government's Department of Technology. All of these companies have former Genom boomer engineers. Who will be the first to challenge Genom? And will Chairwoman Stingray's dire warnings on safety be heeded?" the Moderator fore-claimed.  
  
"And where have the Knight Sabres gone?" Kisagara said under his breath, but audible enough for Sylia to hear. And she smiled.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"To Haruga!" Leon raised his stein high into the air, the white foam head of the lager bobbing precariously close to spilling over the rim.  
  
A dozen other steins rose up to surround his, the men and support staff of his RRT shouting out their fallen comrades name. That done they drank deeply.  
  
"Damn fine stuff," 'Chief' Roland clapped the burly Leon on the back.  
  
"Careful, Nic," Leon growled, "Don't want to spill this."  
  
"So you've heard the news?" Roland sat down on a round stool by the bar. The Genom security team had taken over the bar for their own use, everyone else ushered out and the sign on the door switched to closed. The keep didn't mind, Leon and his crew were regulars, and ran up a good tab anyway.  
  
"You mean Daley, right?"  
  
"Yeah. It's a little early for him to come back, don't you think?"  
  
Leon looked down into his half-empty, or was it half-full? stein. "Work out of the office, Chief? I think that means you have to buy the next round."  
  
Someone overheard and shouted out: "Hey, the Chief's buying the next round!" And there were cheers.  
  
Roland shrugged. "I'm sure as heck that Sierra Leone hasn't just become safe all of a sudden. And then there's been the increase in incidents, mostly involving our esteemed Chairwoman and boss Sylia."  
  
"You think too much," Leon said, inside he felt uneasy however.  
  
"At least I think," Roland replied with a hearty laugh, "but that's not in your job description, is it?"  
  
"Funny, very funny."  
  
After the bar had to finally close at 2am, Leon decided that it would be better if he walked home. The air was fresh and the roads mostly empty. He didn't live far away and wasn't on watch tomorrow - today - he corrected himself. Today was an off day. He'd still pop into the building, fire off some rounds, see if Nene had found out anything on Priss - the mystery woman of his sleepless nights.  
  
Leon didn't think about Priss as he walked home. He was thinking about what the Chief had alluded to. He was right, Daley was being brought back for a reason that probably had to do with the danger Sylia was in. In the past, Leon wouldn't have thought much of that. Sylia as head of the boomer destruction force known as the Knight Sabres, had always been able to take care of herself before. But now there were no Knight Sabres. Priss was gone. Sylia was running Genom, no way she'd have time to fly around in her hardsuit. That left the other two, Linna who held a special position in Sylia. She was coming back with Daley. And Nene, who was still as annoying as before. At least they didn't see each other as often. But she was still doing her job and had helped nail the guy who had tried to kill Sylia a week ago. Still Leon didn't see how effective the Sabres would be without Priss. He remembered the first time the green and red went it alone. It had almost been a catastrophe.  
  
The former cop, now leader of what he thought of as the replacement to the Knight Sabres, kept thinking - being a detective - as Daley would ridicule his preference to charge in head first, about the incidents. He knew that the first wasn't about rogue boomers but controlled ones, just like the last had been. There didn't seem to be a connection between the two, the employee Satoshi had controlled his boomer in a less sophisticated way than the ones from Tokyo, which had been mutated.  
  
That someone from inside the company had tried to kill Sylia was chilling. It made his resources feel stretched too thin. One group in Tokyo, primarily there as a PR stunt to help Genom get the TQZ reconstruction tender, and the other here with him. He shuttled between them on alternate weeks, which was annoying, but he had two investigations to track now. Investigations had always been Daley's strong suit. Maybe that's why he was being recalled. It would be a good idea. Genom, and Sylia, had far more enemies in Japan than she did in some small African country.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
George Negus was glad the show was over and he could get home, have a bite of something stale to eat, and then go to sleep, well deserved. The talk had been tiring and the reporter found it difficult enough to be in the same country as Masamune Kisagara, let alone the around the same table. He was insufferable, an ego to match the salary Sony paid him. Too bad I couldn't sledge him about Sony's failed attempts to acquire boomer technology.  
  
As soon as he stepped out of the station's lobby his cellular rang.  
  
"Hello, Negus speaking."  
  
"Good evening, Mr Negus. I'm calling to thank you for defending me on your show tonight."  
  
"Sylia!" George blurted out, surprised.  
  
"Yes," her amusement traveled down the line.  
  
George collected himself. "So you were watching then?" regretting it immediately. Of course she had been watching, she'd just told him that. What an idiot.  
  
"Yes. I quite enjoyed it. I take it that you don't like that Kisagara fellow very much?"  
  
"No, I don't. Ah-" how astute.  
  
"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. I don't like him either."  
  
"I'll certainly say that I didn't expect you to call. I hope no one knows, they may think that my journalistic integrity has been compromised. Sleeping with the enemy, you know." George started off to the car park, almost tripping when Sylia's laughter, quite loud, struck him in the ear.  
  
"I didn't expect us to go that far so soon."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Nothing. Just the medication I have to take for my headaches,"  
  
"How are you - it was a shock to hear about what happened."  
  
"Fine. There is another reason why I called."  
  
George noticed the change of her tone to one more serious and business like immediately. "And that was?" he asked cautiously.  
  
"Your interview."  
  
For a moment George was dumbfounded. Then he remembered. "Oh, right. The interview I asked for in Tokyo. Although I recollect that you said something about a date."  
  
"That I did, Mr Negus." Sylia's laughter returned. She sounded exceptionally cheerful after two attempts on her life. "Still want it? Exclusive interview with the head of Genom corporation. Then you'll really be able to see how big my brass ones are."  
  
"Ah, sorry about that. If I'd known that you were watching."  
  
"Well? I'm a busy woman. Any other reporter in Japan would kill to interview me. I have a whole department just to tell them to get lost."  
  
"It's a date then."  
  
"Good. Tomorrow night suit you?" Sylia asked him.  
  
"Sure. It's about time I saw what the Genom corporation has done to Osaka."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Sylia, I think that this is a bad idea-" Candace implored. It made her face look unattractive and added a whine to her voice.  
  
"It's going to happen." Sylia stated her position. "It's about time the press had some access to me. Otherwise they'll get harder in their attacks no matter what we do. Last week took off another twenty percent of our stock price, irrespective that the situation with the factory is now under control and will be completed."  
  
"I know, but you should have discussed this with me, that's what I'm here fore isn't it?" Candace sat on the desk next to Sylia, as she was doing all the time now in private meetings. "Plus, I don't know about this guy, George Negus. To be fair he is respected here but he certainly isn't the heavy weight that your first interviewer should be like."  
  
"You would prefer?" Sylia inquired and a slight upturn of her mouth. She liked it when those around her were a little off-guard or nervous.  
  
"Someone like Brian Winters or Connie Lau."  
  
"Of CNNNN? Candace, I don't want some news celebrity who will be more interested in their own 'performance' than the interview."  
  
"I would have made sure that the list of questions was approved first. Now that you've gone ahead we won't be able to do that." Candace crossed her legs.  
  
"Doctored questions would not be a good idea. Anyway, I have nothing to hide," Sylia patted Candace's knee. The French woman was wearing a skirt as usual. She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs again, very deliberately for Sylia this time, with her attention drawn to taking her hand away. Candace could see the linger of the eyes. She decided to get up, give Sylia a little disappointment.  
  
"Just remember, I'm not happy with this," Candace waved a finger, mock- scolding, in front of Sylia's grinning face. "And considering where you are having the interview, it sounds more intimate."  
  
"Heaven forbid. Is my personal life going to have to go through you as well?" Sylia asked. Candace was good for her stress relief. Not like the rest of the senior executives and board members.  
  
"I'll seriously think about it. Now I've got important work to do, and you're still 'healing' remember." Candace waved and swayed out of the office.  
  
Sylia leant back into her chair and rubbed her forehead. The bandage wrapped around was covered in a bright patterned scarf, her secretary exclaiming that pirates had invaded the building. "Ha ha," she had replied breezing past. Fortunately she didn't have a lot of work on. Her next meeting was with Linna and Daley. It was going to be important, maybe one of the most important of her life. Certainly her future.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Here we are! Home at last. Stop me if I try and kiss the ground," Linna squealed in joy as the jet rolled to a stop on the expansive tarmac of Osake-Kobe International.  
  
"To say that you are happy to be back is an understatement," Daley said. He unclasped his belt and stood up to get their cases down from the overhead racks.  
  
"You have a problem with that, Mr Wong?"  
  
"Not at all. Now you won't be so hard to work with."  
  
"What does that mean?" Linna put her hands on her hips, looking cross.  
  
"You weren't terribly enthusiastic back in Freetown."  
  
"Well you get kidnapped and - oh. Sorry. I guess I was bad company after that. I really thought it would be a good experience, helping all those poor people."  
  
Daley shrugged. "We weren't going to make miracles happen overnight. But you were wrong on one account,"  
  
"Which is?" Linna said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.  
  
"You weren't all that bad company. If it had been you and Leon, well."  
  
"I'd rather not think about it. That man, ugh." She shivered.  
  
"I'm glad it was you, Daley. It made it bearable. God, I wish I was still a Knight Sabre and not an office woman again!"  
  
Daley almost said something but checked his tongue just in time. Like Leon he had been thinking about why the two of them had been recalled. He had a pretty good idea. Taking up Linna's hand luggage he followed her out of the plane, watching her skirt enclosed hips with a smile, what had made it bearable for him.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"I just can't wait for how the rest of the press will react tomorrow," Candace gave another little push.  
  
"They won't believe a word that this Negus man will write. They'll think he's been bought off by Genom, or Ms Stingray's 'personal charm'." Itto said caustically.  
  
"You watched him last night?"  
  
"Yes. He's the one from Tokyo?"  
  
Candace nodded. Itto was seated on his office sofa while she stayed by the window looking outwards. Her physical distance agitated the Genom marketing director. He hadn't had her in almost a week now and the loss was getting to him. She was there, in his eyes, but untouchable. She'd taken off the suit jacket that she'd worn in Sylia's office. There it had been buttoned just below her chest, pressing it together for Sylia. Her shirt was cream, bra beneath black. Clearly noticeable to Itto, distressing him further. Too busy thinking with his groin when she was around and not his real head. It was going to cost him. Fatally.  
  
"That's right. I tried to dissuade her but she didn't listen."  
  
"The bitch doesn't." Itto was smarting over the loss of his man Satoshi and the failure to get rid of Sylia.  
  
Candace was surprised at the venom in Itto's words. She decided to stoke the fire. "I even asked her about the venue. I think you're right about her. Something as bad as an affair with a journalist can only hurt Genom."  
  
"He's married?" Itto asked, hopeful.  
  
Candace shrugged.  
  
"The rest of the media will attack us for getting into bed with him. Trying to get favourable coverage."  
  
"He is positive towards Genom, well Sylia actually, now."  
  
"You should have done something about it."  
  
"I tried,"  
  
"She will destroy us." Itto proclaimed.  
  
"I don't think it will go that far," Candace smiled into the glass window.  
  
"It may be little now but it will build up. All the small events will come together and then we will find that they cannot be controlled. I knew that she was just a woman. She doesn't have the strength to run Genom."  
  
Candace's smiled turned to barely concealed anger. As a woman she had accomplished much. Sylia has already done more than you could ever, Itto. Why did I waste my time with you?  
  
"What are you going to do about her then? Incidents will keep happening while she remains as Chairman."  
  
"Something. I'll do something, but better if you don't concern yourself."  
  
More man's work? Candace didn't say, although she knew that's what Itto meant. Damn the Japanese.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"I thought this was going to be a debriefing?" Linna said with growing dismay.  
  
Sylia shrugged. "I'll go through your reports later. Genom has more pressing matters to attend to first. Notably its survival, and mine. You know about Tokyo and the construction site?"  
  
Linna and Daley nodded.  
  
"Good. You know that neither was a rogue incident. Both times the boomers were remote controlled. At the construction site this was by one of our own employees. We don't have a motive for the attacks on the site and me. Up until now the employee was considered a good and hard worker. The Tokyo attack we believe was conducted by an external party. Of the two its hard to judge which is the most dangerous. I know nothing about either and that has to change. Boomers are a threat to the safety of the planet. Before Galatea they were restricted to Genom and I could manage that with the Knight Sabres. That's impossible now. I need the resources of Genom to continue the war. I need you two to find out who my threats are."  
  
Linna and Daley rocked back in their seats. Daley had been expecting something, but this and what it entailed, his mind already working on the scope, was more than he had bargained for.  
  
"Sylia, what are you saying?" Linna asked.  
  
"I need the Knight Sabres again, Linna. Only a few know who we are and they all work for me," although one was missing, "The Knight Sabres were the nemesis of Genom. They've been absent for a while, but the return of rogue boomers will bring them out of the mothballs."  
  
"And their aim is to find out who is attacking Genom?" Daley said.  
  
"Correct. It is good cover, better than you might expect. Everyone things the Knight Sabres are against Genom. That means who ever is trying to kill me won't think of you as enemies. They might try to hire you as allies."  
  
"But what about the Grasshoppers? Anyone can see that they resemble our hardsuits-"  
  
"Doubtfully, Linna. Not enough to make a direct, provable, connection. The RRT's can't be used for this assignment for another reason: there isn't the manpower to spare. The RRTs were created to handle rogue boomers when they occur next. That is still their job."  
  
"Will they know about us?" Daley asked. It was a good question.  
  
"No. Leon will probably suspect something is up when he hears about the return of the Knight Sabres. He, and the rest, are going to be kept out of the loop. That's an added danger for you."  
  
"I bet. Many in the ADP don't remember you all too well," Daley said.  
  
"What?" exclaimed Linna, "You mean we might have our own troops after us?"  
  
"Possibly. Hopefully Leon will handle it."  
  
Daley hoped so too.  
  
Linna was chewing on her lip. "Well, I know this is important work, Sylia, but its not going to be like before, is it?"  
  
Sylia shook her head. "I won't be able to be as involved as I would like. But I've got enough work here running Genom as it is. That's why I'm putting Daley in command." There were surprised looks exchanged. "Daley, you have the investigative skills required for this assignment. I can't get a hardsuit made up for you, unless you think you can run in high heels?"  
  
"Uh." Daley stammered, "I don't think I've quite got the figure either to be afraid."  
  
"A Grasshopper will be handed over, but it will only be available for emergency situations." Sylia said.  
  
"Then it's just going to be me and Nene?" Linna said somewhat downcast. No more Priss. No Sylia. She thought she should be ecstatic to know that she was going to be in a hardsuit again, but.  
  
"Yes. I know that you're thinking about Priss. I am too. But there's nothing we can do. She's just. disappeared."  
  
"What about Nigel and Mackey?" Linna asked.  
  
"They'll be support again. They'll have the time soon when the factory becomes operational and the new boomers are in production."  
  
"That is still months away."  
  
Sylia nodded. "Time is not in great supply. I'm sorry to put this burden on you, but."  
  
"Don't worry, Sylia. We understand." Linna said with conviction. As was to be expected of her. Sylia had been counting on it. She smiled at the younger woman. "How was your birthday?"  
  
"Oh. Terrible."  
  
"I'm sorry." Sylia said, "I'll make it up to you - both of you."  
  
"When do we start then?" Daley asked. He was feeling the eagerness growing. A return to real police work.  
  
"Now," Sylia pulled a vanilla envelope out from beneath the desk. "There are two sets of keys to a car in the basement and a small building that will serve as your command centre. It was a small electronics manufacturer now empty. I only just purchased it three days ago, so you'll have to furbish it yourself. You're going to have to be careful with expenditure. My own money is tied into Genom and there isn't a lot of money floating around. The accountants I have working here are very good."  
  
"Got it."  
  
"Well you two go check it out. Nigel and Nene will be over in the evening to unload the hardsuits and other equipment."  
  
Outside of the office Daley and Linna waited for the elevator.  
  
"I wasn't expecting that at all," Linna said.  
  
"Worse than I expected." Daley said in turn.  
  
"Do you think we can do it?"  
  
"Sure we can." The elevator doors opened and they stepped in. "This time it won't be a megalomaniac boomer intent on destroying all of humanity but some dangerous men instead."  
  
"That is not very reassuring."  
  
"I'm going to be your boss, too." Daley grinned at Linna.  
  
"That's just great." Linna sighed. "I guess I'll be looking after your ass, then."  
  
End Part I. 


	5. Hearts & Minds part 2

Hearts & Minds II  
  
Daley parked the car a block beyond the address Sylia had given them. They walked back on a meandering path to scope out the neighbourhood and get an idea of the street and alley layout. The neighbourhood wasn't active, mostly wholesaler space and long term storage. After hours the streets would be dead. A perfect place for an out of the way secret location. Linna had always found Sylia's Tokyo shop/residence to be too public for her liking. Nice clothes (unfortunately too expensive), but too public.  
  
"This place looks alright," she told Daley.  
  
Daley agreed by nodding. "Won't have any trouble at night; roads are all straight and clear."  
  
"Go in?"  
  
"Around the back."  
  
They went down a service lane and then turned right into an alley that ended with a roller door. Beside it was a smaller person-sized door that looked thick and heavy. It had an old rusty keypad that Daley felt around and flipped open - it was just a façade - where the real lock and pad was. He inserted one of the keys Sylia had handed over and punched in a number. The door unlocked and through they went.  
  
It was dark. Linna found a light switch and turned it on revealing stairs up and down. "Which first?" she asked.  
  
"Up. I figure what's important will be downstairs. Check out the view first." Daley responded.  
  
"Location, location?" Linna smiled.  
  
"Gotta have a nice skyline," Daley winked at her.  
  
Upstairs was office space, a kitchenette, toilet and even a storeroom with two cot bunks in it.  
  
"Does Sylia expect us to sleep here as well?" Linna said unimpressed.  
  
The large windows were polarized and had venetian blinds. Running most of the length of the wall they had a good view down both directions of the street. Unfortunately, the building wasn't any higher than the others across the road, unable to give a top-down view.  
  
The top down they went back down. The ground level was all cleared out for car parking. Easily big enough for the Mobile Pit and other cars, Linna thought.  
  
Daley was right about the basement. Nigel must have already been in because Linna recognized a lot of the equipment from Sylia's. There wasn't as much, in fact the place looked totally Spartan compared to The Pit. But then, most of the equipment had been destroyed. She looked around for the hardsuits but didn't see any. The disappointment showed on her face.  
  
"Looks like we've got some long days and nights ahead of us," Daley commented.  
  
"Yeah, last time Sylia had everything organized already. Now that's up to us. Why is it that I always get more work." Linna sighed.  
  
"Can't have the moments of fun without the pain, I'm afraid."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Cold water helped reduce the irritating headache, but it also meant her showers were a lot shorter than she would have liked. Being head of a large corporation that kept her constantly busy, she at least thought that showering was one refuge that would not suffer. Getting wrapped in a soft towel, another for her hair, made her feel a lot better; warm and comfortable. She liked her lounging robe for the same reason. It felt good against her skin, soothing away the tension and worries, and also supplying some amusement when she appeared before others in it. It was short and always tied loose. The short moments of embarrassment, trying not to look, or get caught.  
  
"The small things in life," Sylia said aloud to her empty suite. Maybe, if things went really well, she'd get to see how her interviewer reacted. Or Candace.  
  
Sylia blinked. The image of her PR Head giving her appraisal - which Sylia didn't think would be too favourable considering Candace's impeccable dress sense - startled her. Sure she had deliberately flirted her body to a degree with Priss, Linna and Nene, but the way Candace appeared and looked back; if made her feel different. And a little uncomfortable. She forced her mind back to George. Since she and Nigel had drifted after Galatea and her choice to take over Genom, an important part of her own life had been empty. Hopefully that would soon change. Running a large company and keeping it alive, while trying to keep herself alive from far more dangerous threats, was a hard burden to bear. She needed something, someone, to reminder that she was a person, a woman. Alive.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Kobe's Chinatown district had grown significantly after the imposement of the TQZ. Yokohama having become the main battle ground between the Chinese and local criminal syndicates over the wharfs, it was only natural that Kobe's large port would be subject to similar power struggles. Therefore it wasn't difficult for Itto and his entourage to find someone willing to help him in his little manner of removing Sylia from Genom, permanently.  
  
The Marketing oyabun sat on an uncomfortable dark wooden chair, which surprisingly held his weight (not that he considered himself overweight), as it was delicately made. In between him and the broker opposite was an equally dark table, which had a large red and gold hexagon in the middle. The cups of tea had been taken away and consequently the smalltalk was also over. Now it was down to business.  
  
"I must ask, Itto-sama, why you haven't approached your own countrymen for the task you have come to me with," the broker said. He was an old man. His beard was long and grey, the only hair on his head. To cover the baldness he wore a skullcap and hid a frail body beneath voluminous robes.  
  
"What makes you think that I have not approached the Yakuza?" Itto asked in return.  
  
"Because I would know. We all know the comings and goings of each other," the broker waved his hand in the air, "They are but little secrets. Unimportant. And if you had visited the Yakuza, then your coming here meant that they did not want to do what you had asked."  
  
"Then why do you think that I am here?"  
  
"Because you do not want to involve your countrymen at all. You want outsiders, foreigners. For someone to blame if your plan goes wrong. For someone not to treat as Japanese if your plan goes right." The broker smiled thinly.  
  
"I want associates who I know can do the job." Itto responded.  
  
"And that we can do, I am sure. What is it then that you ask of us to do?"  
  
"I want you to kill a person. A woman."  
  
"Wife, lover, mistress? You have power Genom-man. You do not need us to kill one person. A woman."  
  
"Normally no. But in this case. She is no ordinary woman."  
  
"A woman of power then? Dangerous?"  
  
Itto scoffed. "Not dangerous. Well-known. That is why I cannot do it myself."  
  
"She is?"  
  
"Sylia Stingray."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"What's going on, Nic?" Leon asked the Chief.  
  
"Maintenance." 'Chief' Roland replied gruffly. Hands on hips he looked out over the RRT staging area. "All the Grasshoppers are undergoing a full checkup."  
  
"At once?" Leon asked, incredulous.  
  
"Yep."  
  
"But that's crazy! Who authorized it?"  
  
"Some fool in Administration."  
  
"But what if something happens? If all the Grasshoppers are offline -" Leon's heat was rising fast.  
  
"I know, I know. I'm trying to sort it out. I didn't find out until after most of the machines were being torn open and the techies won't stop without orders from above. You know how they are."  
  
"This is ridiculous," and Leon stormed off towards the stairwell down, ready to abuse the first techie he saw with his opinion about the situation.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"See you tomorrow, Nene," Kasumi waved through Nene's office door and vanished before Nene could look up from her screen and say good-bye. It was 5:30pm and time for her to leave as well.  
  
Nene was excited. A short meeting with Sylia and an email from Linna later had her heart racing. The Knight Sabres were Go! It was about time. Sitting behind a desk was okay, for a while. She missed the thrill and adrenaline (either forgetting or not wanting to consider the danger involved as well, as young people do) of flying and fighting in her hardsuit. This time she was sure that Sylia would give her a lot more weapons. Finally, she would be able to kick butt as good as Priss and Linna! Maybe even better, she'd been practicing a lot on Tekken 16 and DOA Ultra-eXtreme Hardcore for weeks. With no Priss, she was sure to get weapons. She just had to!  
  
Stuffing platypus into her bag she logged off and shut down her PC, and rushed out off the room to the lifts, waving energetically to the remainder of the staff looking a little overtime.  
  
"I wonder if I should ask for a change of colour? I'm a lot older and mature now. Pink is for girls. Maybe red and purple, or black. That'll put the scare of Nene into my enemies." The blonde chortled, then looked around and made sure no one had overheard her.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia gave herself a critical eye in the mirror. The dress she had chosen was classy, sophisticated and daring. She liked it very much. Black, it had full length sleeves and was short. In fact she couldn't smooth it down any further than mid-way down her thigh. The neck was wide at the shoulder, and plunged deeply to a sharp V at her sternum. It wasn't indecent however, an X of black strips covered some of her exposure. Her long legs were covered with sheer stockings. Her skin was smooth and creamy, but she preferred her legs to have a shine about them. On her feet were high heels, making her legs look longer and also giving her butt a well-rounded appearance. The bandana and bandage were gone, neither complementary to her outfit. A bit of makeup had gone over the bruise and she'd teased her hair so it would hang over it more. Lastly eyeshadow was applied, giving them depth. Sylia considered her eyes to be her greatest asset. If she could catch someone else's gaze in them, they would be lost and hers. She always like to make strong eye contact with people she met for this reason as soon as possible. First impressions were important, control was more. The eyeshadow also made her eyes look sexy. Intelligent men liked intelligent eyes.  
  
Ready, she turned away from the mirror and picked up her handbag. Like a tornado she had cleaned up her place as best she could as well, meaning everything was dumped into a cupboard. She'd never really had enough time to make the suite a mess so it wasn't a lot of stuff, but a certain giddy apprehension forced her to make it all appear as presentable as possible.  
  
She took the elevator express to the lower level car park where her roadster waited. Maybe she'd take him for a spin before coming back. To get his heart going. The thought made her grin.  
  
The engine roared to life. Slipping it into first she headed out, down the exit ramps and onto the dark road.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nene looked at her watch. The bus was late! Which meant she would be late, and she hated being late for anything. Especially anythings that had to do with the Knight Sabres or You Know Who as she liked to say when suspicious people (read anyone) were around.  
  
"Hey, Nene, what are you at this stop for?"  
  
"Huh?" Nene turned around and scowled. It was Leon.  
  
"I thought your bus was number 43. This is for 87."  
  
"I know that Leon log head." Nene said tersely.  
  
"Log head?"  
  
"I happened to walk by your office once when you were sleeping." Nene did an imitation of an aircraft engine.  
  
"What? I don't snore and its slander if you tell anyone." Leon growled.  
  
"This isn't your bus either. What do you want?"  
  
"I just saw you and."  
  
"And what? I hope you aren't stalking me. I can scream very loudly, you know."  
  
Leon huffed. "Don't be like that. I just wanted to know if you've found out anything on Priss."  
  
Nene's joking mood vanished. "No."  
  
Leon was downcast. Head sagging he nodded. He hadn't expected anything else. The small piece of hope that he held grew smaller again, as it did each day. One day he knew, when all the hope was gone, he would forget. And something that had been special in his life would be gone forever.  
  
"Okay, thanks." Leon started to walk away.  
  
"Look, Leon." He turned around. "You'll be the first to know if we do find anything, you know that?"  
  
Leon nodded. "Your bus is here."  
  
So it was. Nene watched Leon walk away before hoping on. She was the only passenger. The driver was a boomer. It said 'hello' and she piped back at it, the excitement returning. She paid for a ticket and took the seat behind the driver. The bus pulled away passing Leon and leaving him far behind in moments.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
As Sylia's car exited the Genom building and headed towards the city another car pulled out onto the road and followed her from a block behind. There wasn't any necessity to follow the sports car and its driver, the occupants had been told where she would be going and when she would arrive. They did it only out of habit and on the off chance that their information was wrong. It wasn't.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto looked at his watch for the umpteenth time. It wasn't time yet. He couldn't bare the wait, wanting time to rush forwards as fast as it could so his problem would be announced solved. From his liquor cabinet he pulled out a bottle full of dark brown liquid. He had called Candace, to celebrate with her, but she had left work and her phone was disengaged.  
  
Way up high in his office he settled down on a leather couch and looked out to the spires of the city, beacons of light in the coming night.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia met George in the lobby of the hotel he was staying at. She smiled broadly as his face showed surprise and appreciation.  
  
"You look. fantastic." George complemented her.  
  
"Thank you. So do you."  
  
George nodded. He was wearing a freshly crisped suit. Leading, Sylia slid her arm into his. "My car's outside. I'll drive us to the restaurant."  
  
"Okay."  
  
They walked outside where a valet was watching the car. He opened the doors for the passengers.  
  
"Nice wheels. Fast women like fast cars." George said and Sylia laughed.  
  
"Get in." She told him.  
  
With Sylia at the wheel it didn't take long to reach the restaurant. It was located on the tenth floor of an extremely plush and expensive hotel/mall complex in the heart of the city. Another valet took the car and they walked arm in arm inside. At the restaurant the Maitre'd recognized Sylia instantly and whisked her to the reserved table and its glittering street and river view.  
  
"I've never had an interview at a place like this before," George said.  
  
"I hope you've only got a few questions to ask. I'd rather spend most of the dinner talking about other things."  
  
"Can I ask about you, then?"  
  
Sylia smiled coyly. "If they're not too personal."  
  
George held up his hands in mock denial. "I'm not writing a tabloid piece if that is what you are implying. I just want to get to know you better. Who you are, what you want. Why you decided to take over Genom when -"  
  
"When everyone said it was going to fall? Ah, the first question already." Sylia folded her arms on the table. A waiter came around and poured chilled water into glasses and left the cloth wrapped bottle on the table.  
  
"It's the one everyone wants to know. Daughter of the boomer creator, independently wealthy, owner of a clothes store. Next day Chairwoman of Genom. What makes a woman, especially an intelligent one as yourself, take on such a difficult challenge?"  
  
"Would you believe me that I was doing it to follow my father? To somehow live up to his name, carry on his work, now that he is dead?"  
  
George shrugged. "I don't know. That's what I want to know. It is your answer?"  
  
Sylia sighed. "It would be the easy answer, wouldn't it? Orphaned child seeks approval from dead parents by finishing father's work. Catchy byline isn't it?"  
  
"That must have been hard, growing up on your own."  
  
"It was. Money wasn't a problem. The loneliness was. Seeing Genom take my father's work and propagate it around the world with little regard. Making military boomers to fight our wars. Making them slaves. That's not what my father wanted for boomers. He saw them as something else entirely."  
  
"You sound bitter. Did you think that Genom was corrupting your father's work?"  
  
"We all knew what Genom was like before but no one dared to speak it aloud least you became proscribed. In answer to your question, yes I believe that I want to stop the bad Genom has done. The only way I can do that is to run it."  
  
"It must be hard."  
  
Sylia looked up from the table and stared directly into George's eyes.  
  
"Very."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Knock, knock! I'm here, somebody let me in!" Nene waved her hands at the camera her little sensor pack had found. A few moments later her phone rang.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Nene, don't stand there outside an empty building waving like a lunatic."  
  
"Gee, great to see you too, Linna."  
  
"Come around the side and I'll let you in. The others are already here." Linna said.  
  
"Other's who?"  
  
The phone didn't answer. Linna had disconnected. Nene trotted down the service road and side entrance where Linna was already waiting for her. Although she wanted to, Nene didn't wave. Instead when she got inside she gave Linna a big hug that was returned after a moment of surprise.  
  
"It's bee a long time," Nene said to Linna.  
  
"Not that long. I wasn't even gone for two months." Linna replied.  
  
"That's enough." Nene said cheerfully. "So is it true, we're back in action?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Great. I can't wait to see my new hardsuit."  
  
With that Linna's face fell. "We don't have them yet. Everything is kinda in a rush. Nigel says a week."  
  
"A week!" Nene exclaimed. "I can't wait that long. I can't go back to work and sit in my office and know that I'm a Knight Sabre again but won't be able to get into my hardsuit for a week. I'll go mad, completely mad, do you understand, Linna?" Nene rushed. She took a huge breath afterwards.  
  
"I feel the same way but it can't be helped. There's a lot of work we have to do before everything is ready. And since you're the computer whiz you can get all the software running." Linna patted Nene on the shoulder compassionately. Daley had her rolling up her sleeves and moving heavy stuff around. She hadn't liked that at all.  
  
"This sucks." Nene pouted.  
  
Linna took Nene downstairs where Daley, Nigel and Mackey were setting up the support equipment. At seeing Nigel and Mackey, Nene went into a rage, rushing up to the smaller of the two and yanking his ear to get his attention.  
  
"Oh, hi, Nene, that does hurt -"  
  
"Silence! Why are you here? How did you get here?" Nene yelled.  
  
"I came with Nigel."  
  
"Then why didn't you bring me along too? I had to wait for ages and ages for a bus. And the bus was slow! A stupid boomer was driving it and they don't go over the speed limit."  
  
"It's illegal to go over the speed limit."  
  
"Argh!"  
  
"And we didn't have room. The van was full of equipment for here. Isn't it great that the Knight Sabre's are back?" Mackey grinned, ignorant.  
  
"I could have sat on your lap!" Nene yelled so loudly that everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked over at her. Instantly her face went beet red. Mackey's went pink. Nene stormed off. The others went back to work.  
  
"Odd girl." Linna said under her breath.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"I can't believe that you said that!" George was laughing heartily.  
  
"Well I did and the Professor deserved it!" Sylia confirmed. Her own grin was rather wide and she hid it behind her hand.  
  
The formal part of the interview was over. So was dinner. And two bottles of red. The third was half way done and the hour was late. The diners didn't care. They were chatting as newly matched couples do who like to talk, and found themselves and their interests to be the best topics. George liked the sound of Sylia's voice and laughter, and kept making her elaborate on her teenage and early adult years. He was finding that Sylia was a fascinating person indeed. He kept his own answers short and informative, not so he could find out more about her - as a reporter - but as a man interested in a woman. And Sylia did not mind. It was clear that she, both of them, were enjoying the company thoroughly.  
  
"You know," Sylia started.  
  
"No I don't." Geroge said quickly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"No I don't know what your about to say."  
  
Sylia looked oddly at George for a moment before laughing again. "Well, let me inform you then, shall I?"  
  
"Please do." George made a triangle with his forearms and the table and rested his face on his knuckles.  
  
Sylia opened her mouth to continue then stopped, leaving it open. "I've forgotten what I was about to say."  
  
"You could say anything and I would listen with rapt attention."  
  
"Ah! That was it, scoundrel. My wonderful PR Flak said that it was a bad idea for me to have this date."  
  
"Why so?"  
  
"Because it would damage both our credibility."  
  
"I think I understand. The Flak is worried that the media will think that you have bought me off?"  
  
Sylia nodded. "I don't know how that idea got into her head."  
  
"Well," George leaned back, "if that's right then you got me cheap."  
  
"Eating here is quite expensive, I'll let you know."  
  
"I'm sure," something caught Georges eye and he turned to face it.  
  
"What?" Sylia inquired, following.  
  
"If this is a high class restaurant then I wonder how they got in." He pointed to a trio of men in bright shirts and jeans who were threading between the tables. They were all carrying shoulder packs. And heading towards their part of the restaurant.  
  
"I don't like this." Sylia said. "They look like trouble."  
  
To prove Sylia's point the lead of the trio opened his bag and pulled out a stub nosed submachine guns  
  
"Get down!" Sylia screamed.  
  
The bottles on the table exploded into clear shards as steams of bullets smashed through them. A fork went spinning into the air, bent. A knife flashed off the table to skitter across another's. Wood chips, torn towel, flew into the air. The back of George's chair flew apart. If he hadn't scurried beneath the table he would have been killed.  
  
"What the hell?" he yelled at Sylia.  
  
"It's me!" Sylia cried. They were after her. She was sure of it. Her enemies were getting brazen to attack her in a crowded restaurant. They might still be successful. Above her head the table rocked under the impact.  
  
The firing stopped. The screaming of the patrons started. Sylia peaked out and snapped her head down as a bullet smacked into the window behind her. She heard cursing.  
  
"It's jammed. Come on."  
  
Grabbing George's arm she rushed with him to the toilets. Earlier she had gone there and noticed an exit sign. Her way out. The assassins yelled and guns were in all their hands. The diners began their panic driven rout and streamed for the exit. Other's stayed put. When the assassins fired again they caught a terrified couple in their fire, sending their jerking bodies backwards in sprays of blood. Their deaths allowed Sylia to get behind cover.  
  
"Quickly!" she urged.  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"No time, run."  
  
They sprinted down the corridor to the exit. It started to open. Sylia could see a muzzle through the crack. She slammed into the door with her shoulder. The door flew back and struck another assassin behind it. Pain raced along her arm. It had gone numb. Slipping through the gap she saw the stunned assassin. He was alone. She kicked him hard in the head and he went down cold.  
  
"Holy shit!" George exclaimed. He was in it again. Trouble followed this woman like a curse.  
  
"Don't stop, they'll be behind us." Sylia pulled off her heels and hiked her dress to her waist. Down, it was long enough to make running difficult. She needed her legs unhindered. At any other time George would have focused on her legs and hips. Not when his life was in jeopardy.  
  
"Well get the elevator next floor down. Hurry."  
  
The stairwell was close by and they speed down it to the nineteenth floor.  
  
"Why don't we go down them all?" George asked.  
  
"Too far." Sylia could feel the loss of breath already. She wasn't fit anymore. "When they spot us in it they can get someone down below us faster and then cut off both directions. Do you have a phone?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Shit."  
  
"We need one."  
  
They exited the stairs. Sylia saw a man standing by the lifts and ran up to him. He was in a suit so he wasn't another assassin. That didn't stop her from throwing him up against the wall and searching through his pockets for a phone.  
  
"Hey, what, help!"  
  
She pulled out the phone and stabbed the lift's down button. Looking up she could see that most of the lifts were heading up.  
  
"C'mon, c'mon," she urged.  
  
The stairwell door burst open. Out came assassins.  
  
George hurled himself and Sylia into the empty lift as the doors opened.  
  
"Close it!" Sylia shouted.  
  
George got her and spun around. The wall by the door was a puzzle of buttons. His hand reached out. He searched for the right button. He found it. His finger started forward. Bodies began to emerge from the hallway. His finger touched it. The button flashed. A chime sounded. The assassins turned towards the lift. The doors started to close. The guns aimed.  
  
They fired.  
  
George's head vanished.  
  
The doors closed.  
  
"No!" Sylia screamed, horrified.  
  
Thick rivers of blood ran down the semi-circle glass wall of the lift. The reporter's body collapsed to the ground, more blood flowing out of it in sheets. Sylia screamed again and again. Her hands shook in front of her trembling mouth. Never had she seen a human die like that before. Never so close. She had killed boomers, seen the first Sabre girls die. Never so personally. The overwhelming drive of hatred against boomers wasn't at work now. There was no death because of the cause. It was her fault. She could feel the beginning of tears stinging her eyes.  
  
The phone was in her hands. Concrete. Fumbling she entered the number.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Linna's phone was on the table and in a different room. Weakly she heard it go ring.  
  
"Almost there," Daley told her.  
  
They were wiring together two separate pieces of monitoring equipment. One part was against the wall. Daley was working at the delicate wiring while Linna pushed the second part against the first so they would be joined closely.  
  
The ringing of the phone was like a mosquito buzzing close to Linna's face. She didn't know who would be calling her at this hour. "Someone get that, it's in the storeroom." Looking around she saw that the room was empty. The others were upstairs.  
  
"Done. Hey wait -"  
  
Linna let go as soon as Daley spoke. The phone continued to ring. Somehow Linna felt that it was urgent. An old connection. She jogged into the room and picked up the phone.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Linna!"  
  
"Sylia, is that you?"  
  
"Yes. Linna, you've got to get help. Someone is trying to kill me. They killed George. His dead. It's my fault."  
  
"Sylia! Where are you, we'll come right away."  
  
"The Pelican, city. Get help. There's at least four and they have automatic weapons."  
  
"I'll call the RRT right away."  
  
"Hurry. I'm in a lift now. I may have to run." Or find her car. It was fast. She could get away. If they didn't have a man there waiting for her. She couldn't risk it.  
  
She looked up and saw another lift coming down. Bodies were pressed up against the glass. It was the assassins. One of them was on a phone. Calling others to let them know where she was. Making their plan. She looked down. Too slowly was the ground coming closer. All about her the night city was bright, lights reflected off the glass.  
  
Glass.  
  
Oh no.  
  
Sylia leapt against the door as the glass above and around her shattered. It rained down over her. Her hair and hands fell over her face, covering. George's lifeless body shook. Holes appeared in the floor a few inches away from her. They couldn't see her huddled against the door.  
  
She scrambled up on her knees. Broken glass had cut the back of her hands and her legs. Taut, her stockings had split wide open in various places along her legs. Blood welled out.  
  
The floor numbers counted down. Just after eight she quickly hit the button for seven. The lift came to a stop and using fear inspired strength she helped the doors open and threw herself out as bullets raced through the emptiness where she had been.  
  
Aching feet speed her down the corridor. She knew that the assassins would drop off at least one person on the sixth floor. She headed for the far stairwell and crashed through it. No time was spared for looking up. She literally jumped from landing to landing. Pain raced up her legs from the shock landing. Down and down she went.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The only vehicle they had was the van. It had to do. Leaving behind the others, Daley and Linna put the peddle to the floor and raced towards the city. They knew they wouldn't get there in time to make a difference. Linna was on the phone to the RRT.  
  
"What the hell do you mean that none of the Grashoppers are ready?" she was nearly screaming.  
  
"They're under maintenance. It's a total fubar."  
  
"No kidding its fucked up! Get anything out there yesterday!" Linna threw the phone against the windshield.  
  
"What's going on?" Daley asked, worried.  
  
"They can't help. They're all being repaired. Fuck! No Grasshoppers. No hardsuits. Sylia needs us!"  
  
"Jesus. The Police will get there right away. We have to hope that they can handle it." Daley said.  
  
"That doesn't matter. This shouldn't be happening."  
  
Daley wished there was someway he could comfort the woman. As a member of the Knight Sabres, she and Sylia were close. He could clearly see how frightened she was. Unable to help. Too far away. Going to be late.  
  
"Come on car, faster." Daley urged.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"It'll be at least an hour to even get one Grasshopper operational again, Sir." A techie said to Roland, nervously.  
  
"You've got five minutes or heads will roll. Now move!" the Chief bellowed. The techie scurried away. "And I want the head of the fuckwhit who ordered this mess!"  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
A bullet clanged off the railing near Sylia's hand. She snatched it to her chest. They were coming down from above her.  
  
She reached the next floor and yanked the door open and header the other stairs. She reached them the time the assassin came out into the hallway and as another almost ran right into her.  
  
For a moment they were both too startled to move. Then reflexes and hate driven speed sent Sylia into rapid motion. She headbutted the assassin, making him reel back, and then thrust a knee into his groin. He doubled over and she slapped the back of his neck hard, kneed him again, and shoved him into the doorway. His gun was on the ground, just a pistol, and she picked it up and shot him in the face.  
  
Only three more flights to go.  
  
She ran down the stairs as fast as she could.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Outside police cars screeched to a halt. Dozens of lights were flashing. A cordon was being set.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
First floor. One more to go. Sylia burst through the stairwell again and into a hallway. On this level there were shops. The shopping centre covered most of the block. There was no way any assassins would be on the other side. Panting and sweating hard she pushed for escape.  
  
She spilled out of the corridor into a wide avenue. Glass storefronts ran in all directions. Behind her a pane shattered. The crack of the gunshot reached her soon after. They were still there. She didn't look back. She ran.  
  
The assassins didn't yell at her, didn't call for her to stop or surrender. She could hear them running after her. Just as tired they had to be. But they could see her. They had guns. The one bullet required to kill her could come at any time.  
  
Many did but none hit her.  
  
A corner came and she took it. It was safety. A crossroad approached quickly. She would go left. That way was out.  
  
The enemy had figured it out too. Just as she reached it an assassin came into view. His face was flushed with exertion. She let her legs fly out from beneath her and she fell onto her back, skidding along the smooth polished tile. The assassin's reflex shots went high. Centreing the man at the end of her gun she fired twice. He jerked backwards and fell into glass. As he slid down he left behind a wide band of red.  
  
Sylia scrambled back onto her feet. No one else was coming. She headed left. Now there was yelling behind her. Not to let her get away. Another corner. Right. She was running along the wall and could see the street below. It was too far to jump. Cars and people went by without any knowledge of her plight.  
  
Then she saw the awning. Twenty metres ahead. Calling for her last reserves she bent her head down, lengthened her stride, and pumped her arms.  
  
The distance closed rapidly. She lifted her gun hand. It jerked up and down. She didn't care. She fired. The glass cracked, large spider webs appearing. It didn't break. Mortified she hoped that it wasn't bulletproof.  
  
They were behind her again.  
  
There was only one thing to do.  
  
Screaming, arms in front of her face, Sylia leapt at the window. Like a thousand stars in the sky it broke and she passed through. She fell sideways onto the awning and bounced. The road appeared again. Vanished. She hit the awning's railing. All air exploded out of her lungs. She rolled over.  
  
Fell onto a man standing beneath. He cushioned her fall.  
  
People shouted and ran towards her. Hands helped her up.  
  
"Get away!" she yelled and waved her gun. The hands let go. She couldn't see. Everything was blurry. Her mouth was bitter. She had to keep running. She wasn't safe.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"How long dammit!" Linna said frantically.  
  
"Ten minutes."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia kept the awning above her until it ran out. She kept close to the wall. Around her she could hear the wailing of police sirens. She kept running, didn't know how far, didn't want to stop. Just wanted to keep running, to run away from what had happened, what she was, was she was doing. The only thing she saw was the single frame image of George wobbling on unsteady legs, head gone.  
  
Bright light filled he eyes and she felt the world spinning.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Daley drove the van up to the police line. They got out and pulled out their Genom badges. The cop on the line recognized Daley and let them through.  
  
"I see Roland and Leon over there," Linna pointed out.  
  
"And Sylia."  
  
They ran over.  
  
Linna rushed up to Sylia and hugged her tightly. She was a mess. Tears had made her makeup run in dark streaks down her cheeks, her hair was a mess, dress dirty and cuts and bruises covered her legs. Linna didn't say anything, just sobbed into Sylia's shoulder. Sylia held onto her just as tightly. Her tears were finished.  
  
"What the hell happened?" Daley asked Leon.  
  
"Another assassination attempt. Professionals this time. Three were killed, the cops got one trying to sneak out. Sylia must have got the others. She doesn't know how many there were, so they probably escaped."  
  
"From?"  
  
"Don't know yet. The dead assassin's haven't been tagged yet."  
  
"What the hell happened with the RRT?"  
  
Leon's face turned black. "I don't know. Some maintenance order that none of us knew about. They were all out of action. We suited up in body armour and took the VTOL. It was over before we arrived. What the hell is going on Daley, who wants her dead so bad?"  
  
"I don't know, Leon. I don't know." Daley looked at his boss. In her condition she looked pathetic. A total wreck, not the strong confident woman he usually saw her. Not the toughened Knight Sabre. He looked away. It was a sight he didn't want to remember. Police cars, ambulances and media vehicles filled the road. Genom was headline news again. He had only just returned to Japan, landed feet first immediately in the bog. Sylia's suspicions were now more concrete than ever. This was the second attempt on her life in less than that many weeks. The first had been internal. He didn't rule out that this was - however behind the first plot deciding to get professional help outside. Three or more assassins, it was likely they were hired from one of the gangs or syndicates. Or a rival. The insider could be a mole.  
  
The former ADP detective ran a hand through his hair. The mess was complicated, full of angles. Whoever was behind it was moving fast. To proceed with an attack so openly. one that Sylia was alive by a miracle of luck. They wanted her dead and fast. Publicity didn't matter. Who then? Why? Where they after just her, or Genom as well? Possibilities ran through his active mind. Too many. He stored them away for later when he had the time to think through them properly. The matter was so important that he couldn't run any decision or forget a variable. But he couldn't take his time either. Sylia was in mortal danger. The next attack could come at any time.  
  
"Okay, lets get her out of here. Sweep her apartment down, do a full sweep of the Genom building," he told Leon.  
  
"It was never this bad in Tokyo." Leon said.  
  
"No, it wasn't."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Itto slammed the phone's receiver down. She was alive! Still. Somehow. The Chinese had failed. They'd try again, the broker had said. Their way. Secretly. Not in the open. Bah, fools. A few men was worth her death. He had paid them enough for it. At least there was no chance of it coming back to him. The attack would also take the importance off the investigation on Satoshi. Still, time was running out. He had to be in charge before the announcement for the tender rights to the TQZ Reconstruction were issued.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The Wind Master put the phone receiver down. Itto was not happy that Sylia was alive, but that was what he had expected. Sylia had shown great courage and resourcefulness to escape without assistance. Good for her. The cost to him had been minor, half a dozen men. The three that had escaped would have to be killed. The return however would be worth it. He had Itto. The Marketing Director, probably responsible for the other troubles at Genom, would have to use his Tong or risk his part of the assassination attempt becoming public. Foolishly, thinking that he could control the Tong, Itto had not gone to the Yakuza, where his request would have been more successfully carried out. No, the Tong was its own master. The door was again open.  
  
Holding up a coin with a square hole in it, the ancient Wind Master smiled. 


	6. Project Management part 1

Project Management Part I  
  
"I'm going to take Sylia home."  
  
Linna had left her distraught friend and searched Daley out to make the announcement. The worry on his face mirrored her own and he just nodded, didn't speak. Linna nodded back and returned to where Sylia sat at the back of an ambulance. The usually strong and self-assured woman was staring at the dirty road without blinking. Colour had returned to her cheeks, the adrenaline boosted shaking had stopped and her cuts and abrasions tended to (square and triangle bandages covered her arms and legs), but she was still silent, the dark streaks of dried tears down her cheeks testament to the pain that had not subsided.  
  
Putting an arm around her friend, Linna helped Sylia up and exited the cordoned off area. The crowd of spectators parted letting them through. The media were on the other side of the police area and struggled their way through; they only got footage of the pair getting into a sportscar and leaving.  
  
Daley watched them go. He was both saddened and surprised at Sylia. Alone, she had managed to escape the brazen assassination attempt and to kill some of the assassins.  
  
"I'm glad I don't have to live with that kind of stress," Leon said from beside his long time police partner.  
  
"What do you mean?" Daley asked.  
  
"Knowing that someone is out to kill you."  
  
"Leon, you really are an insensitive idiot."  
  
Daley walked off. He had a lot of thinking to do.  
  
***  
  
Candace toweled her blonde curls and turned on the television with her big toe. The plasma screen crackled to life and up came an image of her very own CEO sitting by the back of an ambulance. The reporter was speaking fast - too fast for her to translate well enough - and she couldn't read the ticker at all. Yet the situation looked clear.  
  
And so was the action she had to take.  
  
Briskly the PR specialist went into her room and pulled out the clothes that would suit her intention. She flung the towel onto the bed and before the full length mirror, dressed as rapidly as she could, casual yet quality, made sure everything was right, then picking up her keys headed out and took the elevator down to the garage where her Lexus waited.  
  
***  
  
Linna, with Sylia wrapped around her, were on their way up the scores of floors to Sylia's one hundred and sixth floor suite. During the drive, the reinstated Green Sabre had constantly been on high alert and looking out the windows in all directions. The trip had been uneventful, thankfully, but now Sylia's door waited. She hadn't even thought of calling security to sweep the place before their arrival.  
  
Nor did she have a gun.  
  
It made her feel naked. Impotent. Frightened.  
  
The elevator doors opened and she walked Sylia through. It was a straight line to the door. Half way she stopped and leaned Sylia up against a wall. She tried to move away but Sylia clung on to her. Gently she pried the fingers from her arm.  
  
"I'm going to take a look at your place first, Sylia. Wait here." She squeezed a shoulder and confronted the ominous door, wondering if death waited behind it. It wasn't too late to call security. Yes it was.  
  
Having got the key from Sylia's purse (that somehow had come out intact), she approached the door. She tested for heat first, putting her palm up against the door. It was cool. No smoke around the edges. Tensing, trying not to hold her breath she unlocked the door and opened it slowly.  
  
Before she entered, Linna looked back at Sylia; her face was hidden by her drooping hair. The scene comforted her somewhat, steeling a wavering resolve, and she stepped inside.  
  
The suite was dark. The lights of the city provided the only illumination, casting electric blue and red hues over the windows and furniture by them, leaving the interior in impenetrable shadow. The wall on her left and facing her opposite were all glass. In another time, she would have found the sight mesmerizing; dozens of tall buildings and thousands of points of light.  
  
The key shifted in her palm, sticking out between two knuckles like a stiletto. "Stay relaxed, girl" she told herself and walked further into the open suite.  
  
In the darkness her feet stumbled a few times, knee crashing into the corner of a coffee table. Nothing stirred. The layout of the suite confused her, there were hardly any dividing walls. It was like a studio. Despite the large size the lounge, kitchen and bedroom were all open. Only the bathroom was fully enclosed. Tracing her path around Sylia's large bed, the sheets still twisted and glowing pearl-like, she could see all the way out to the city. And someone could see in, too. Where was the privacy? After the tour, finding nothing, she turned on the lights.  
  
Then she heard the elevator chime.  
  
The burst of energy coming from her Sabre training speed her back to the door in time to see the elevator doors open and a woman step out.  
  
"Candace?"  
  
The PR Director was equally surprised to see Linna at the opposite end of the corridor, halting her. Between them was Sylia. Refocusing on the silver haired women she regained her momentum.  
  
"I thought she would come back here." Candace said.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Linna asked, heading for Sylia as well.  
  
"I saw the news. God, Sylia, you look frightful. I should get you inside," Candace put an arm around Sylia.  
  
A sudden and intense stab of jealously caused Linna to tense. "I was just about to do that. I wanted to make sure her room was clear first," she said angrily.  
  
"Considerate of you." Candace smirked and led Sylia to the door.  
  
Linna blocked the way. "I appreciate your concern, Ms LeCourviere, but as Sylia's Special Assistant I will take care of her. She needs someone she can trust right now. I've known her for a long time," and I don't trust you, Linna didn't add. The vibe Candace was giving off was rubbing her the wrong way. The way she was dressed, how she held Sylia. something, the air about her. it set Linna on edge.  
  
"I know exactly what Sylia needs. Standing here in a corridor with you blocking the way to her comfort is not it."  
  
The accusation made Linna flush. She backed up and the trio of women entered. Candace took the interior in quickly. Nice.  
  
"If you're trying to protect her, then I suggest turning off the lights or finding a way to block the windows," the French woman suggested tersely. "Wouldn't want a sniper."  
  
Chastised, Linna went to the lights she had oned and flicked them off. "There aren't any blinds."  
  
Candace entered the 'bedroom' part of the suite, a half-foot raised platform behind the lounge and its view outside. She lay Sylia on the bed, brushing locks of hair away. "Find the controls, then."  
  
In the returned darkness Candace didn't see the angry scowl that came over Linna's face. She wandered around the walls until finding a set of LEDs by one window wall. Fiddling about she adjusted the reading and saw that the windows polarized. "That'll do it." She returned to Sylia and gasped a little too loudly at the sight of Candace leaning over Sylia's Snow White posture like a Prince Charming.  
  
Candace straightened up. "Did you think I was going to kiss her?" her unusually plain lips smiled.  
  
"No." Linna stammered.  
  
Candace stood up. "I'm going to get a wash cloth." She walked by Linna too close for the other woman.  
  
Linna sat down by Sylia and took a hand into her own and patted it. "It's going to be alright Sylia. We're going to find out who did this and they'll pay. You rest."  
  
Sylia blinked and looked up at her and offered a weak smile. Linna smiled back. Candace returned with a wet towel and started to wipe the smeared makeup from Sylia's face.  
  
"It's my fault," Sylia whispered.  
  
"No it isn't," Linna said shocked. "Nothing's your fault."  
  
"He's dead. I saw him die."  
  
"Don't talk, Sylia. Don't dream." Candace cooed.  
  
Linna's phone rang. Loudly.  
  
Embarrassed, she took the call quickly. "Hello?"  
  
"Linna, it's Daley. Where are you?"  
  
"I'm at Sylia's. With Ms LeCourviere." Linna answered.  
  
"Good. That means you're free -"  
  
"Hold on, Sylia need me here with her."  
  
"Something's come up, Linna. Candace can look after Sylia. I need you right now."  
  
Linna looked back at Candace. The pang of jealousy was still there. She should be looking after Sylia, not a foreigner who didn't know Sylia at all.  
  
"Yes, I can take care of her. She will be fine with me," Candace said.  
  
"There's not much time, Linna." Daley said.  
  
"Alright," Linna conceded reluctantly. "How do I get -"  
  
"Borrow a company car. You should be able to do that."  
  
"Or Sylia's. Its fast." Linna imaged herself demon-driving through the streets in Sylia's sportscar. It would have to be as good as flying in a hardsuit.  
  
"Whatever," Daley dumped water on her dream, "Time's limited."  
  
"Okay." Linna sighed. "Bye, Sylia, I'm sorry I can't stay. I'll come back as soon as I can." She brushed Sylia's forehead. Then left without a glance or word to Candace.  
  
***  
  
As soon as Linna was off the line, Daley dialed in another number. He was standing over the body of one of the assassins Sylia had killed. What he saw disturbed him. He hoped that he was wrong, if he wasn't then the enemy after Sylia was very powerful indeed. Much more than what his little team could cope with.  
  
"Okay, you can take him away now." Daley said to the waiting police. They covered the dead man with a sheet and lifted him onto a stretcher and carried him away. Daley watched them go, staring at the tattooed hand that hung out beneath the sheet.  
  
Big trouble indeed.  
  
***  
  
Sylia swallowed the mouthful of chilled water. The glass was offered to her again. She shook her head, declining. Above, over her, Candace looked down with deep concern. Even then she still looked beautiful.  
  
"I'm sorry, Sylia. It must have been awful."  
  
Sylia looked away. Outside. The buildings just shadows behind the windows now.  
  
"I really thought that it would have been fine. I didn't expect,"  
  
"You couldn't have. No one could have."  
  
Sylia tried to scowl but there was no energy. Her muscles refused to move. "He died because he was with me. Because I wanted to have dinner with him. If it was just going to be an interview. then he wouldn't be dead. But I wanted more."  
  
"You shouldn't be talking, Sylia. Rest. Sleep, if you can. I'll be here." Candace said. Her unspoken words were of the opposite however. Here Sylia was opening up to her intimately. She wanted to know everything.  
  
"I didn't want to be alone any more. Do you understand? Ever since my father died.no before then, I was alone even then. After my mother. I have been alone. Do you know how it feels, to be alone?"  
  
"Not the way you have," Candace said softly.  
  
"I just wanted someone to share with. Some moments of happiness, to be with someone. A small wish. Not even allowed it. His head. his head vanished."  
  
Candace closed her eyes. This she didn't want to hear. She stroked Sylia's brow. "Don't talk. Don't say anything." When tears starting falling from Sylia's eyes again, pain struck her own heart. Despite her reasons for being at Genom, what her orders and plans were, she was still a feminist at the sight of another woman hurting from the machinations of men hurt her in empathy. Despite it being her intention and without quite knowing what was going on, she leant down and put her lips onto Sylia's to silence her.  
  
Together their mouths opened, surprising both, and the kiss deepened.  
  
Contact broke. Candace sat up, dazzled.  
  
Sylia stared in awe and short of breath. Around her the world dissolved, leaving only herself and Candace. Her hand moved and touched a knee, ran up the smooth skin to the edge of the skirt. "I don't want to be alone," she said.  
  
The words were like a magnet. Candace crushed down and their mouths joined again with unrestrained passion. Sylia's hands pulled her skirt up to her waist and stroked bar skin immediately. Candace shuddered involuntarily. Her mind was gone, spiraling down the rainbow hues and lightning flashes that scorched sensitive senses. Without knowing how it had happened or the time that had passed, she looked down at a naked Sylia beckoning. Then it was fire and ice, everything a blur, prolonged, delocalised. Of that night, all she, all both of them could remember was that they had become one and were no longer alone.  
  
***  
  
Linna did take Sylia's car. She howled as the engine howled, racing down the near deserted nighttime streets and ignoring all the red lights. She'd only received her license a fortnight before Sierra Leone. The power and responsiveness of the car exhilarated her. The wind raced through her hair, stole her yelling breath away.  
  
Too early the journey was over and she pulled into the alley that lead to the new Knight Sabre headquarters. She parked, noting that the van was back, meaning so was Daley. Still on a high she nearly leapt out of the car and jogged up the stairs.  
  
"Don't be too flashy," Daley said from the window, closing the blind as he spoke.  
  
"A girl needs a bit of fun," Linna retorted.  
  
"How's Sylia?"  
  
Linna deflated. "Fine I guess, considering. I should be there."  
  
"You said Candace was there. She can handle it. She can't handle what we're going to do."  
  
"And what's that?" Linna asked curious.  
  
Daley sat on the top of a table. "As you can probably tell from my last name I'm Chinese. Half-Chinese, really."  
  
"I never would have guessed." Linna couldn't avoid the jab. She sat down too.  
  
"Overall, there aren't a lot of Chinese in Japan. Most were around Yokohama and Tokyo, but with the TQZ and relocation of refugees, many consolidated on Kobe. During Chinese New Year I visited Little China for the day. I wanted to get back in touch with my heritage."  
  
"Are you going anywhere?" Linna prompted politely.  
  
"Ah, yes. Being a half-caste keeps me out of the society but I know enough about how it operates and who operates it to recognize that Sylia, or Genom, or both, are in extreme danger."  
  
"I don't understand, Daley."  
  
"Like Japan, the Chinese are a bonded community. Family, honour, is paramount. Family is more than parents and siblings. It includes who you work with, your boss, the organization you belong to. These organizations are very powerful in their communities and have loyal members."  
  
"I'm still not following, are the Chinese responsible?" Linna said.  
  
"The short answer: I think so. I hope that it is not the case. On one of the assassins I saw a tattoo."  
  
Linna started to feel that she did now understand. "The Yakuza have tattoos too."  
  
"Yes, but different. They're like uniforms. The Yakuza have their style, and the Tong have theirs."  
  
"Why would they want Sylia dead?" Linna asked.  
  
"I don't know. That worries me, but what really worries me is that I recognized the clan that the tattoo belongs to. It was the 1000 Spears Wind clan. I didn't even know they were in Japan. Linna, these guys are the largest and most dangerous Tong in China. They practically run Shanghai and Beijing won't dare to crack down on them. If it is them - and I dearly hope that it isn't - Sylia is in more danger than we could possibly imagine."  
  
***  
  
Dr Shan was the Wind Master; the leader of the vast 1000 Spears Wind clan that had its tentacle influence buried deep in mainland China and spreading far and wide into Europe, American and Japan. Once he had worked along side a man who had experimented on his own daughter to create a new form of life. Once he had helped that grown daughter to destroy the life her father had created. A short time ago he had sent men to die to kill her. And they had died. She had lived.  
  
Old and wizened, he carefully put the photo down back onto the black lacquer table. He turned away from the image of two men and a young girl with amazingly blueish-silver hair smiling at the camera.  
  
"I'm tired," he said to the recycled air.  
  
The air did not respond. He felt it swirl around him on unseen currents. With adroitness betraying his progressing years the Doctor drew a character in the air, fiery lines marking the passage of his finger. The character meant Life. He watched it fade, as all life does under the irresistible law of entropy.  
  
***  
  
Midnight had just passed.  
  
Time didn't mean anything to Little China. The streets were chocked with cars and delivery vans and heavy beats on subwoofers. Pedestrians threaded through the gaps, able to move faster than the heavier congestion that slowed motion along the sidewalks to a crawl.  
  
"I'm glad we parked away from here," Linna yelled above the sound of car horns, music, and bartering. "Man, this doesn't feel like Japan at all." The streets were lined with shops and stalls for cheap electronics, noodle bars, kara-oke bars, snake-soup stalls (with skinned snakes), and worse displays of live caged animals and dead hanging carcasses.  
  
Daley laughed into her ear. "And this is a weekday."  
  
The pair pushed their way through the crowd, deeper into the heart of the Chinese microcosm. Linna could feel dozens of eyes penetrating her, a Japanese in China, and she felt reassured that Daley was with her. She didn't know that Daley was getting the same response from the gazes they could not return. He hid his feelings behind the mask Chinese could wear, with an extra layer that being a policeman required. His height and authoritive presence helped to clear the way. Despite the hate directed at him, they knew he was either a cop or gangster and wouldn't trouble him. That's what he hoped, anyway. "Watch your wallet." He said to Linna anyway, just to be sure.  
  
"I've a death grip on it." Linna replied seriously.  
  
Congestion cleared a little as they reached the next block. Family units and children were gone. It was teenagers and adults and all of them from boy to man, girl to woman, looked like they were out of a Hong Kong bullet ballet flick. Cigarette smoke hung in clouds beneath stall awnings. This time they could see the eyes staring at them, swiveling.  
  
Daley put a hand at the small of Linna's back and guided her into an open noodle bar. They sat on cheap plastic chairs and rested arms on an as cheap laminate checkered table covering.  
  
"This place looks dangerous," Linna said. Next time I'm here, it'll be in a hardsuit! Fighting boomers had been completely different.  
  
"Not what you can see. They're just punk kids trying to look tough and maintain a little turf. If you knew what you couldn't see, well, you wouldn't want to be here."  
  
"Great. Reassure me. I don't want to be here now."  
  
Daley laughed. "Don't worry. We're interesting, but won't be hassled. Fukien okay for you?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Fukien noodles?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
Linna watched Daley head to the counter. As always he was well groomed, dressed in a light brown suit and had his spectacles sitting at that point just far enough down the nose to be offensive if recognized. She was glad he was a cop. The only other person she could think of coming here with and not being a shaking wreck would have been Priss. The biker girl would have fitted in like duck to water. Finding herself staring at Daley she shook her head and looked away. It wasn't polite. No, it wasn't discrete.  
  
Daley came back with two plastic tubs of steaming noodles.  
  
"Don't they have plates?"  
  
"If they had plates then they would have to wash them and that would mean having to hire someone to do it or buying a dish-washer and that wouldn't be economical when cheap disposable plastic is available."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Chinese do everything to maximize profit."  
  
Linna noticed a bin full of the tubs. "Not very environmental though."  
  
"That's for the next generation to solve. They'll be dead and surrounded by riches then."  
  
"What a horrible way of looking at life. You're kidding aren't you?"  
  
Daley shrugged. "Its probably hot."  
  
"The steam making my nose wet told me that, genius." Linna said drolly.  
  
"Ah. That's what I miss."  
  
"Insults?"  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"You're weird, Daley. Do you know that?"  
  
He laughed. "Maybe. I miss helpless Leon getting angry at Nene's wise- cracks. She could make my day."  
  
"Yeah. She's like that." Nene was weird too.  
  
They ate, glad to put something warm and filling into their stomachs. As everyone else they ended cleansing their throats with tea. It was then that events started to happen.  
  
Half a dozen almost-twentysomethings with rock band inspired hairdos occupied the tables surrounding the Genom employees and glared at them with open intent.  
  
"Time to leave?" Linna asked.  
  
Daley took his time to respond. He leaned back in his chair, letting his jacket fall open and reveal enough of the shoulder holster he wore. The youth gang exchanged looks and that was the cue. "Let's go."  
  
Daley followed Linna out. His trained gaze took in the gang. Two girls and four boys, none of them looked hard enough to belong to a proper gang that the 1000 Spear Wind clan might employ on the streets. Finding presence of the Tong was the goal for the two of them this night. If the Tong were in town then it would be visible in Little China. Confirmation would allow the investigation to be properly targeted. He had thought about the tattoo being a deceptive tactic, and then discounted it. If it were a ruse and the real Tong found out, Daley wouldn't have to worry about them at all. The Tong would destroy the fakers more thoroughly than he could ever imagine.  
  
The gang fell in behind them, remaining five metres behind. Out of pure chauvinistic motivation, Daley kept them between him and Linna. He knew she could fight, had seen boomers destroyed at her hands, but she wasn't in a hardsuit now and was green to the nature of the streets he had patrol and investigated for many years.  
  
"What are we looking for then?" Linna said from ahead. They walked past more stalls and shops, and adult entertainment centers.  
  
"Dangerous looking people."  
  
"Shit, I could've pointed out a few ages ago."  
  
Which was true enough. A lot of older and meaning looking men were in bars or stood out the front of such. They weren't what he was after however. Not big enough fish. "You'll see what I mean when we get to the gambling rooms."  
  
"Pachinko, eh? I haven't had a go at that in years."  
  
They moved through another block, deeper into Little China. Small alleyways branched off and moving shadows could be seen in their depths. Daley knew that Opium dens would be down there, or muggers, out of the light cast by neon signs.  
  
They came upon the gambling area when the quality of dress vastly improved. Denim, leathers and tee shirts were replaced with business suits and brill cream swept hair. Limousines were parked along the curb.  
  
"Swanky," Linna said. "Hey, the goons have gone." She'd looked over her shoulder.  
  
"Not allowed here." Daley replied.  
  
"And we are?"  
  
"We're just about to find out."  
  
Because a pair of suited thugs were coming towards them. Daley recognized one of them from a time before in Tokyo. He stepped up beside Linna.  
  
"I didn't know you had gotten out, Chu." Daley said to the man on the right.  
  
Chu meet the greeting with silence, looking the pair over. "No cops here. Beat it." He pointed back the way they had come.  
  
"Can't a guy take his gal for a walk anymore?"  
  
Linna's eyes widened. Gal?  
  
Chu grunted what Linna took for a dismissive laugh at her. That made her annoyed. While her 'guy' and the Chinese jawed she looked around some more. Traffic in and out of the gambling entrances was constant. A lot of the men were old. Some were Japanese. Hirlings loitered around the outside smoking and telling bad jokes. A few looked her way. One winked at her. She looked away.  
  
And saw a very dangerous man.  
  
The man had the look of a predator. Shark, lion, it didn't matter. He moved with grace and a steely face and was the only person not in a suit in the area - that being what caught her attention. She nudged Daley.  
  
"Take a look."  
  
Daley diverted his attention from the criminal reunion and inspected the man closely. He looked for tattoos visible at the wrists and neck before the man vanished into a building.  
  
"We're not wanted here, let's go." He said to Linna.  
  
"Agreed."  
  
They headed back the way they'd come.  
  
"He what we're after?" Linna asked.  
  
"Looked the part. I'll have to see if I can ID him through a database search."  
  
"For some reason, I don't think he'll be in any database." Linna warned.  
  
"You may be right." Daley conceded. The man did fit the profile he was looking out for.  
  
They exited the posh gambling area and entered back into the in-between place of dens and brothels. The gang that had followed them were waiting on both sides of the street, along with another man who didn't fit in with them. That man was talking to the gang's leader and tried to vanish when he saw their arrival.  
  
"I think we're going to have trouble." Daley informed.  
  
One of the group jogged over to her compatriots on the other side of the road and the larger grouped headed towards them, orders given.  
  
"What do we do, then?" Linna asked.  
  
"See if they've - no, run!" Daley pushed. He'd caught the flash of gun metal in one of the gangers hands. The seventh man had given them a job.  
  
The gang ran for them. Onlookers shouted and cheered but didn't interfere. They just wanted to watch.  
  
Which meant that they didn't get out of the way as Linna and Daley barreled towards them. They had to push their way through jeering and laughing faces. Daley tripped and fell hard onto the concrete. Linna heard and spun around. She smacked the closest face, who fell back with blood pouring out of nose, and the crowd scattered back. Helping Daley up she saw that the gang was getting close.  
  
"This way!" she urged and they headed down an alleyway. It was littered with refuse and homeless or dead bodies in rags, and a lot of needles. Poorly lit they struggled to keep their feet. They heard the gang coming after them.  
  
The alleyway branched out in a warren of thin lanes. The back streets were the realm of illegal operations, smuggling, car body shops, hardcore sex bars. Sprukers encouraged them in with stories of amazing acts and willing boomer slaves. Pedestrians were a mix of bums and sleaze who hardly paid them any attention. Through many turns they aimed to shake the pursuit, consequently getting lost at the same time. The lane widened out into an empty car park bordered by concrete walls. Panting for breath they hid in an area of shadow.  
  
"Did we loose them?" Linna asked.  
  
"Don't know. Hope so. Best if we don't find out."  
  
Linna nodded her agreement.  
  
They recovered their breath and found another exit on the other side of the car park. Half way down it two of the gang appeared at the other end and turned in. By reflex Daley shoved Linna into a recessed doorway and pressed up against her to fit in. He then made Linna's eyes widen as far as they could possibly go by leaning in that last distance and kissing her. Strongly.  
  
Shock raced through the country girl. Her body already on edge went tense and her jaw locked together. Unblinking she stared over Daley's shoulder for what had to be many minutes. The gangers didn't pass. She couldn't hear anything above the blood pounding in her ears.  
  
Daley let go and checked that it was clear. Linna sagged against the doorway. She couldn't believe it. Her first real kiss and she had frozen! Anger welled up inside. Anger self-directed. On many nights she'd dreamt of the moment, born of the weeks she and Daley had spent working close together in Sierra Leone.  
  
"Think we can -" Daley started to say before Linna grabbed and pulled him back against her. This time she led the kiss, forcing Daley's head back with pressure and he moaned in wonder into her mouth. To stop from falling out of the doorway he pressed up harder against her, melding into the curves of her athletic frame. Linna let him, her hands clutching his back. Making sure that this kiss was memorable as she could make it.  
  
The encounter rapidly gained extra degrees of memorability for Linna when she felt two hands sliding up her stomach, lifting her shirt, reaching her ribs on route to her breasts. In response her left hand ran around to Daley's front and down, making him moan again, when her hand wrapped over just as his reached the underwire of her bra. She squeezed.  
  
Hard.  
  
Daley leapt away from her like a stung cat, crashing into the wall on the other side of the lane. Linna stifled her laughter and huge grin behind the hand that had caused the pain. She stepped out of the doorway and looked around; it was clear.  
  
"Why did you do that?" Daley asked, face pained.  
  
"You were getting too fresh."  
  
"Could have said,"  
  
"Would have been hard to speak and kiss at the same time," she said with a wry smile. Crazy considering their situation.  
  
Daley reached out and put a hand at the back of her head. "You're a good kisser, too."  
  
Linna's smile broadened. "I think I need more practice, though." Then with a glare, "But just kissing. I grew up in a conservative family remember."  
  
"I'll happily be your practice partner. I suggest a recess from the lesson first, until we get out of here." Daley smiled back.  
  
Linna nodded. Getting back would be quick and easy, no matter the danger. She didn't want the lesson to wait. 


	7. Project Management part 2

Project Management Part II  
  
Sylia woke to unfamiliar sounds and smells.  
  
Hisses and pops and strong bitterness made her mind focus. She sat up in her bed and wondered why it was darker than usual. Had she woken early? The bedside clock showed that it was seven ten in the morning. Blinking the sleep away from her eyes helped in noticing that it was the polarized windows that were keeping the sunlight out.  
  
"Windows clear," the Chairwoman said and the brightness began to increase. "Slept in." Sylia tossed the sheet aside and swung her legs onto the floor. Just as she was about to stand up she saw the bandages and it all came crashing back. The gunmen. George's head exploding in the elevator. Fleeing, shooting. Escape. After that, she couldn't remember much more. She didn't want to remember any of it.  
  
Her wardrobe was mirrored. Standing before it she inspected what she was. Grey pits hung beneath her eyes and she thought her skin was whiter than usual. Except where the purple bruises were. In the reflection she saw clothing on the floor that wasn't hers. Women's clothing. Underwear.  
  
Bending down to pick it up was painful. Every part of her body ached, just like after a hard work out the night or day before, the muscles finally registering their protest. The bra and panty set gave off a strong musk causing hours-old images to flash by.  
  
"I'll let you keep them if you want," a woman said from behind her.  
  
Sylia turned around, lingerie held against her chest.  
  
"Candace.?"  
  
"You said my name much better last night, Sylia," Candace said. Naked, she held two black mugs in one hand and a plate of toast and omelets in the other. Her eyes grazed Sylia up and down and she grinned. "I think there's something else I'd rather have for breakfast."  
  
"We?" Sylia couldn't quite remember. Or accept.  
  
Candace sat the plate down on the bed and held out one of the mugs, which Sylia took hesitantly. She shivered when Candace stroked her hip, then breast, then kissed her on the lips. Sylia didn't know if were a shiver of fear or pleasure. She sat when Candace gently pushed her down and sat beside her.  
  
"I suspect you don't use your kitchen much,"  
  
"No. I'm not a very good cook. I used to have a butler do all of it for me before." Sylia replied. She took a sip of the coffee and let her think that it was the coffee that was making her body feel warm.  
  
"You look a little confused." Candace said.  
  
"I think I am. I remember what happened last night. the death."  
  
"But not us?"  
  
An arm slithered around Sylia's waist.  
  
"Flashes. I don't remember everything. We had sex?" Sylia asked.  
  
"Yes." Candace answered. "I should apologise, I guess I took advantage of you when you were still in shock. I. I couldn't help myself, Sylia. You are a beautiful woman and I wanted to comfort you anyway I could. Selfishly I took advantage and."  
  
"And drove the demons away," Sylia finished. Surprising herself she twisted and kissed Candace strongly. The taste of coffee was strong on their lips and tongues.  
  
Sylia would have let herself go if Candace hadn't ended the kiss with a quick peck. She stroked an inviting thigh, Candace layering he own hand on top.  
  
"I think I should let you wake up properly first. I don't want to push you into anything that you may regret." Candace said. She put a slice of toast into Sylia's mouth when she made a move on her again.  
  
Sylia bit of a chunk and took the rest into hand. "Thanks a lot."  
  
"You're recovering."  
  
The reminder took an edge of Sylia's exuberance. "No. I don't think I ever will."  
  
"Let's finish breakfast and not think about last night anymore. Then we'll take a shower, if you want."  
  
Sylia nodded but weakly. Just weak enough for Candace. She was there.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"Heeey, anyone here!?" Nene yelled as she thumped up the stairs to the second floor of the Knight Sabres new - albeit dilapidated - headquarters with a heavy computer in her small arms. Sylia's sportscar was in the garage, and the van, so that meant others were around to help her lug the gear upstairs. Hopefully someone strong and male like Daily or Nigel. Crummy lifting wasn't a job for a genius like her.  
  
"Oi!" Nene yelled again, kicking open the landing door and hurrying through before it closed on her. She hated it when that happened.  
  
"Morning, Nene. Do try not to make such a racket." Daily breezed past her to the windows and opened a blind a little.  
  
"You were supposed to offer me help, Mr Wong." Nene growled.  
  
"Oh, sorry." Daley said but didn't move, furthering annoying the diminutive young woman.  
  
Nene put the computer down - thud - and put hands on hips, ready to give the former co-worker/adversary and now co-worker/ally a piece of her mind when Linna did a breeze by past her as well. What stunned Nene's mind into utter inactivity for many seconds (something that nobody would think possible of her hyperactive synaptic root system) was that Linna was wearing only a shirt and was in the process of buttoning it up from the bottom up, it barely covering her bottom - Nene forcefully stopped her eyes from validating and going any further to check if Linna had anything else on as well (which will remain a mystery) - and she walked over to where Daley was, looked at him strangely for a moment and also looked out the window. It was then Nene's glacial mind registered that Daley wasn't fully dressed either. She was thankful that he had pants on, and a singlet. Then it hit her.  
  
Linna was wearing his shirt!  
  
Oh my God!  
  
"You two look like you've spent the night here," Nene said with a little laugh.  
  
"Yeah. Last night we were really busy," Linna yawned. She stretched up. Nene spun around, wishing she could erase her own memory as easily as she could a hard drive's.  
  
"God, I'm tired." Linna droned.  
  
"I thought you'd be a morning person," Daley said.  
  
"Ha!" Nene exclaimed. "Linna's a log. She snores and drools too. I know, cause when she was sleeping over at my pla-eep." Nene shut up.  
  
Daley burst out laughing. Linna punched him in the ribs and glared at Nene.  
  
"I'm going to take a shower," Linna declared.  
  
"That will be difficult, as we don't have one here." Daley informed, rubbing his side.  
  
"Crap. I feel disgusting, sweaty, and my hairs a mess."  
  
Nene slapped her forehead, sickened. What the hell that those two done last night? Didn't Linna know that Daley was -  
  
"Go home and freshen up. Sylia will probably want her car back too." Daley said.  
  
"Yeah. I should check on her. Rough night. I hope Candace didn't screw looking after her up."  
  
"Eh? What happened to Sylia?" Nene piped.  
  
"Don't you know?" Daley said.  
  
Nene shook her head. She didn't like the way the others face's had just changed. "Bad news?"  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"I object!" Itto said with a raised voice, showing just how much he disagreed with Sylia's 'proposal'. It was a rare break of decorum for the man, and any Japanese in particular. "This idea is a pointless waste of time and resources of my Department, and I am sure that I echo all the other department directors as well."  
  
"Your objection is duly noted, Mr Itto, but it won't change my mind; even if all of you object." Sylia said to all the members of the Board seated in front of her. She had called an emergency meeting as soon as she'd entered her office, over Candace's objections - which were targeted towards her well being. Sylia had thanked her new companion for her concern, but what she wanted to do was more important than doing nothing and letting her mind replay the incidents of last night over and over. Only a few of the Board had even known what had happened last night before she had informed them all, and her decision to have every Genom and subsidiary employee security checked. "The recent attacks on Genom and my self require this action. They could not have been done without internal assistance."  
  
"Impossible," Itto vocalized. "Yes these incidents are tragic and worry us all, but I do not think that they resemble the conspiracy that you are implying. Genom Security has said that the employee responsible for the factory attack was aggrieved over loss of promotion and his girlfriend leaving him, and the attack last night was by Chinese. How could the two be related at all?"  
  
Sylia balled her hands into fists to control the shaking rage that coursed through her body. Her anger showed clearly enough as those sitting close leant back and away from her.  
  
"I am in charge here! Of Genom. If it weren't for me this company would have died last year and been swallowed up by its competitors! I own the majority stock, I run Genom and you will do what I say and do it well," Sylia yelled.  
  
The rest of the Board looked at their reflections in the table's lacquered surface, stunned to silence by the outburst.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"She has gone completely mad, insane." Itto complained. He was back in his office and pacing the carpet. He was also very worried about what Sylia wanted to do, could she find a connection between him and Satoshi, or the Tong?  
  
"What do you expect? Someone is trying to kill her," Candace said.  
  
Itto looked at her sharply, wondering if there was any knowledge in the words of who that someone was. Candace's face remained exasperated from being called from her own work to listen to Itto's rant. She suspected he wanted her for something else as well, that something she no longer had the desire or reason to give.  
  
"Hopefully they'll be lucky next time and end her life."  
  
"You shouldn't say things like that here, Itto. The walls might have ears, and I certainly do." Candace warned.  
  
"You would betray me?" Itto turned on her and stepped close. His face was red. Feral.  
  
"I'm simply trying to get you to calm down," Candace said. Her heart was skipping beats. She'd heard about how violent Japanese men could be towards women. To some, Itto was a killer.  
  
"Then there is a better way," Itto said and grabbed her roughly at the behind, pulling her in, kissing her neck, squeezing her breasts.  
  
Candace turned her face away in disgust but did not struggle as she was lowered to the couch and her skin exposed. Itto stood over her and pulled out his belt, holding it doubled like a cudgel. Candace felt fear. Would he take out his anger on her?  
  
Fortunately, he didn't get the chance. Her phone rang loudly, bunched up by her hip in her skirt. Hurriedly she answered it, stood, smoothed out her clothes. Her voice was shaking when she talked and only a little of it was caused by Itto. The rest by who was on the other end of the line.  
  
"I have to go," Candace said.  
  
"Later. I need -"  
  
"It's important. Maybe some other time," Candace brushed off Itto's hand and quickly exited the room.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"We could have a big problem if what you suspect is true, Sylia." 'Chief' Roland said.  
  
He, Leon, and Sylia were seated in his closed office going over the video of the boardroom meeting. She'd had the two former ADP Officers watching from the get go.  
  
"Massive." Leon concurred.  
  
"Itto mentioning the Chinese alerted me. I didn't even know that that's who they were and now that you've told me the Police are keeping it secret and the media don't know." Sylia drummed her fingers on the table.  
  
"Who else knew in official channels that could have told him?" Leon asked.  
  
"Only our security know - or knew. They're under zip lip instructions," Roland said.  
  
"And Daley. Linna too. One of them?" Leon said. Since Daley had returned to Japan, and promptly not been seen around Genom HQ since, he was suspicious of what was going on.  
  
"No." Sylia said. "Neither have close dealings with Itto or Marketing at all. They'd understand the procedures."  
  
"Which leaves us with the proposition that Itto knew from other means. Eye witnesses?"  
  
"One hell of a coincidence." Leon folded his arms. "Did he know that you were going to be there?"  
  
Sylia shrugged. It was hard on her not to be in control of the situation, or without all the facts. She like being on top of things, in control. Playing catch-up was not her style. "Candace knew. She tried to talk me out of it."  
  
Roland and Leon glanced at each other.  
  
"But I know that she was not involved," Sylia added. Candace was her friend. "Itto is the main suspect. His objections to the checks and slip only add weight to the evidence you've already found about his connection to Satoshi."  
  
"They're pretty thin links, Sylia. Not enough to build a case on." Roland said.  
  
"I don't care!" Sylia snapped. She didn't like being second-guessed either. "Sorry. I'm tired."  
  
"Stressed," Leon added.  
  
"I want Marketing checked first, rattle him. It there's enough pressure he may make a mistake."  
  
"If he is involved," Roland warned.  
  
"If he's not, it will be fine. Otherwise. I need to know as soon as possible."  
  
"Or it could make him act again, and succeed," Leon said. "Being hasty could tip our hand."  
  
Roland barked a laugh. "I never thought you that smart, Leon. I'd expect Daley to think of that, not you."  
  
"Thanks for the confidence, Chief," Leon replied, wondering just where the hell Daley was and what he was up to.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Daley was back at his flat having lunch after a quick nap, thinking about only one thing.  
  
Linna Yamazaki.  
  
Kissing her had surprised him just as much her, it seemed, until she'd pulled him back onto an incredibly hungry mouth. With the intention of follow up when they got back to base, getting out of Little China had taken but moments. They'd taken Sylia's car to the suburb and Linna showed just how fast (and dangerous) she drove. The slowest part had been getting up stairs. They'd careened from wall to wall unable to take hands or mouths off each other. Clothes had then flown in the bedroom. No time had existed to think through the implications, there had only been need. Hunger in her eyes, fueled by the danger of being chased. They went far but not all the way. Linna hadn't wanted that, neither did he. Not in 'the office' on a lumpy mattress (for him anyway) under a 75 watt globe. It had still been great. Time flew and Linna didn't run out of energy until the early hours made both of them crash with fatigue. It had been nice holding her. What was best was that when they woke up they didn't make out like it had been a mistake. The opposite. Linna had a lovely smile when she woke up. Too bad Nene had been right, Linna did look dreadful when she was asleep. And drool. He hoped the snoring part was wrong. That was something he could not bare. It had been bad enough coping with Leon during stakeouts. Having to put up with a partner - in the intimate sense - would be impossible.  
  
So hard was Daley concentrating on the mental image of Linna, and the important parts of her athletic body, that he didn't hear the smash of his front door as a powerful blow broke the lock. He didn't see the five men rush in until they were right on top of him and only partially saw the blurry fist as it hit the side of his turning head.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Linna was heading to Genom HQ to drop of Sylia's car, something that she was loath to do. The brunette loved the car. It was fast, convertible, and handled nearly as well as a hardsuit to her desires. The wind in her hair reminded her of flying, the bounding leap and fall of her armoured form from rooftop to rooftop. Superwoman was she. Queen of the World. That she now had a boyfriend (with a nice firm ass), added to the exhilarating beat of her heart.  
  
He also had a nice firm.  
  
It was Linna's quick reflexes and the responsiveness of the car that saved her life. In traffic she kept to the speed limit, working through gaps to overtake anything going a metre per hour slower. With vehicles on all sides, she didn't give them any more attention than was required to avoid an accident. So the midnight blue van that pulled up next to her was only registered by her sub-consciousness - because it was going faster than her. While she looked ahead and judged gap distances and speeds, her peripheral vision saw the side door of the van slide open and the sunlight that streamed inside illuminate a dark shadow of a man seated on the other side holding a long weapon against his shoulder. The image was sped to the sub- consciousness where it overrode all of Linna's overt functions and made her slam on the break.  
  
The stream of bullets raced over the dipping bonnet of the Sylia's car, striking the crash barrier a lane over and brought all of Linna's attention to the threat. Before the hard brake made her loose control she hit the accelerator again and darted behind the van and through a just big enough gap to the next. The back of the van gouged a hole along the side of the car as it braked. Linna fought the tremor that raced through the car and spared only nanosecond glimpses in her mirrors back to the van that started to come after her again. She couldn't afford to look back in the heavy traffic.  
  
Between them traffic cleared. Linna couldn't floor it to escape. Her car was easily faster and more maneuverable, but too many cars were ahead. She flashed her lights and honked the horn, slipped through gaps. The distance didn't grow fast enough.  
  
Linna saw movement in the cab of the van and dropped her head just in time. Automatic fire roared over head, cracking her windshield and making sparks dance on the back of a lorry ahead of her. The lorry's brake lights went red and she jerked to the right, narrowing avoiding a collision. Bullets followed her as the side door gunmen got her into his sights again. The car she almost hit shuddered and swerved, smacked into another car and catapulted spectacularly into the air.  
  
It crashed behind Linna as she zipped through the opening. The van disappeared behind the cloud of dust and dirt. In the overtaking lane she roared ahead. A sign for an off-ramp one kilometer ahead raised her spirits. She'd be able to loose pursuit in the streets easily.  
  
The ramp came. Looking back, the van was a few hundred metres behind. It wouldn't' be able to catch her.  
  
Linna slowed and eased into the turn.  
  
A single aimed shot from the rifleman punctured the rear right tyre. At speed, the low chassis hit the road in a shower of sparks and tore the wheel out of Linna's hands. Uncontrolled the car spun, tearing screams from Linna as her vision was replaced with rushing blur, and slammed into the off-ramp wall at its sharpest point. Linna jerked hard, hit harder than she had ever been hit before. Her head rushed to meet the steering wheel as the airbag exploded out into her face. The impact crumpled the left side of the car, shattering glass and fibre, tearing the chassis in half. Still spinning the front half crashed to a halt twenty metres down the off-ramp, the force of the blow knocking Linna unconscious as the side of her head hit the door frame and her body twisted in the confines of the seat belt.  
  
The midnight van raced past without slowing.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Candace stood in the deserted warehouse, the echo of her heels striking bare concrete fading away.  
  
"I am here," she said aloud. "Just like you wanted."  
  
Silence was her answer.  
  
For a time.  
  
The doors opposite her opened, rattling on old winches. In their middle stood a shape. She couldn't make out any details, whether it was a man or woman, the sunlight behind cast it in black.  
  
She started to walk towards the arrival.  
  
"No further," it said.  
  
Male, she knew. She stopped.  
  
"It is dangerous for me to come here. You had better have a good reason," she said to the mystery man. Her skin was covered in goose bumps.  
  
"I have a very good reason," he said and nothing more.  
  
Candace crossed her arms. She didn't like being played with. "Which is? I've a full mind to turn around and leave her right away. I have work to do."  
  
"And that work is to follow your masters' orders. Or have you forgotten?"  
  
Candace bridled. "No I haven't."  
  
"Good. Neither have they. They say that you are moving too slow. They say that you need help."  
  
"They are wrong. I am gaining increased influence with Sylia Stingray. She now trusts me implicitly," Candace replied.  
  
"I was told that Itto was your agent?" the stranger asked.  
  
"That has changed. He has become a liability, his obsession with wanting to run Genom will get him caught."  
  
"But he might kill her? And then you can take care of him."  
  
Candace wished she could see the face of the man she was talking too. He sounded arrogant.  
  
"It's my operation and I've judged that Sylia herself is a better option. She has shown the capability to survive attacks and is now responding. Her security force is strong."  
  
The man chuckled. "Yes, I found that out some months ago. But I've taken care of some of them already," his voice turned dark. "The first two who humiliated me."  
  
"What does that mean?" Candace asked, worried. Had this man already begun his operations against Genom? The thought angered her. "You aren't to do anything until I give the order. Genom is my responsibility."  
  
"This was personal. In any case, BMC has given me authority to take command of Genom's destruction and I plan to accelerate activities. There is no need for your 'charms' anymore Mlle LeCourviere, not matter how freely offered they are."  
  
"I am a professional. My plan is on schedule -"  
  
"It is obsolete. BMC wants results, now. Genom has to be destroyed before the tender is given for the Tokyo reconstruction project and Stingray dead." 


	8. Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of Interest  
  
"My God, Linna," Sylia gasped, looking through the window into the operating room where a team of green clad surgeons operated on the bloodied body of her unconscious employee and close friend. "How is she?" she said without turning to the senior doctor beside her.  
  
"Bad, I'm afraid," the doctor said. "While her exterior injuries look bad they are superficial - little beyond bruising and abrasions, which should clear up in a month. However, her internal injuries are much more threatening."  
  
"Do everything you can for her, understand? I don't care how much it costs. Just make sure she gets better," Sylia demanded, stony faced.  
  
The doctor nodded. His profession didn't expect otherwise. "I'll make sure she gets the best treatment."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Sylia lingered by the window for a few moments longer, feeling helpless. She couldn't do anything about Linna's condition, but she could do what was in her considerable power and vengeful nature to make whoever was responsible pay.  
  
As she left, hard shoes creating resounding echoes down the overlit corridor, her phone started to ring. She fished it out of her suit-jacket pocket and put the cigarette-lighter sized phone to her ear.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Sylia."  
  
It was Leon.  
  
"I hope you have good news Mr McNicol, I've just seen Linna at the hospital and she is in a critical condition."  
  
On the other end she heard Leon swear.  
  
"Then there's no other way to say this but straight out. Daley's apartment has been blown up."  
  
Sylia stopped dead in her tracks.  
  
"What?" she said without comprehension.  
  
"A bomb or something, the fire brigade is trying to get it under control. The whole block is cordoned off. Sylia, what the hell is going on?"  
  
Sylia didn't know. Blankly she stared down the length of the corridor. Last night she had almost been killed, and now Linna attacked and Daley.  
  
"Sylia?"  
  
She didn't hear Leon speaking. She didn't hear the phone clatter and smash as it hit the floor slipping from her loose fingers.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The phone went dead. Leon called into it a few times before grunting in dissatisfaction and hung up. Ahead of him a thick column of smoke rose into the air. Three Fire Engines were at work and another raced by his parked car to the scene. It was lucky the road was new and wide enough to handle the traffic, otherwise for sure the fire would have been able to spread and maybe cross the road, turning the whole block into a conflagration. The Japanese were terrified of fire.  
  
"Jesus Daley, what the hell have you got yourself involved into now?" Leon said to himself, worried. Not for a second did he believe that the explosion had been an accident. Ever since Daley and Linna had returned from Sierra Leone he had been suspicious of his boss' motives. With all that was going on against Ms Stingray, it wasn't hard for him to be suspicious. Daley was a damn good detective - why he'd partnered up to the sometimes infuriating man in the first place - and Linna was one of Sylia's Knight Sabres, the best after Priss. Together the two would make quite a team.  
  
"Maybe she was planning something like this all along? Dammit!" Leon smacked the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. His best friend could be dead, another acquaintance was seriously injured, and his own boss had been attacked on multiple occasions by increasingly deadly yet unknown opponents. And despite his position as the leader of the RRTs, there wasn't a damn thing he could do about any of it.  
  
Not unless he started acting on his own. Knowing that there wasn't anything he could do sitting idle, Detective Leon McNicol started his car and sped out onto the road. He'd been a cop all his life. It was time he started acting like one again.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Daley Wong felt as if he had been hit in the back of his head by something very hard and strongly swung, which was quite correct. It wasn't the first time in his life that it had happened, but it was a first to wake up seated - tied down to be more precise - across from a venerated old man with an incredibly long and white beard who sat with steepled fingers regarding him closely.  
  
The old man's face lifted when Daley cleared his blurred vision.  
  
"Good, good. You're awake," the old man said in Hokien Chinese, Daley's native dialect.  
  
"Where am I?" Daley replied weakly. His jaw felt wired shut.  
  
"Safe, I would like to think."  
  
"Who are you?" Daley said without expecting a qualified answer. Limited as his vision was he looked around the ornate office.  
  
"Just a humble businessman," came the reply.  
  
"Really."  
  
The old man shrugged, a faint smile at the corners of his mouth. "You might appreciate your situation more favorably if you knew that if you were not here right now, that you would be dead."  
  
"What?" Daley narrowed his eyes and for the first time strained against the bindings.  
  
"Oh, don't tire yourself. They'll be removed in a moment, when you settle down."  
  
"What's going on?" Daley snapped, not at all liking the situation.  
  
"Nothing much. Just a sinister game of deceit and death. Perfectly the kind of thing a good former police officer like yourself would be quite interested in."  
  
The old man smiled again, warmly.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
"I demand to know what is going on! We all do." Itto exclaimed, thumping his fist on the elongated table for aggressive alpha emphasis. "Are we going to be next?"  
  
Sylia wasn't at all impressed or cowed by her suspicious Marketing Director's bluster. In a way she was grateful. The meeting of the board had broken the funk that had hung over her for almost twenty-four hours.  
  
"You can demand, Itto, but the continued safety of Genom and its employees - all of them regardless of level and rank - requires that details are kept confidential and on a Need-to-know basis," Sylia replied.  
  
"Then I need to know -"  
  
"I will judge whether that is necessary or not," Sylia cut Itto off. "And for the time being, Security will be solely responsible. The best thing you can do for Genom is to continue operating as normally as possible. Security is being stepped up at all facilities and we are in full cooperation with the metropolitan police forces, to help us find those responsible for the attacks on our employees, and to ensure that no more attacks occur. Distracting yourself with this problem will not help Genom. You will only do what our enemies want, and that is to ruin us."  
  
"Which you are well on the way to doing, Chairwoman Stingray!" Itto shouted and stood up. "The majority of attacks have been on you and your clique, not Genom. Face the facts; you are the real enemy to Genom's survival."  
  
Blood infusing her face with fire, Sylia shot up from her chair as well, both hands slapping down on the table with cracking force.  
  
"Enough!" she shouted, near shrilly. "I am this corporation and the only reason why any of you are still here! You will do as I say or get out!"  
  
The Department Directors stared in shock, then looked away wanting to avoid Sylia's merciless gaze. Not even Itto dared to look her in the eyes. Grumbling he stomped away and left the boardroom, soon followed by the others.  
  
Candace lingered behind. Letting out a long breath she swiveled her chair towards Sylia. "That was. impressive."  
  
"They're fools. Itto is a fool."  
  
"You are right about Itto. He has a point, though -" Candace pushed.  
  
Sylia snorted. Fatigued she slumped back into her chair. "Itto isn't going to be a problem for much longer."  
  
Candace blinked, wondering if Sylia had really meant to share those words and the implications drawn from them, and her own knowledge of Itto's recent actions.  
  
"As much as it's pointless to say, you need to clear your head for a while," the PR director offered.  
  
"It is pointless. I was almost killed, Linna still might and there's a good chance that Daley has been."  
  
"What's the latest?" Candace asked.  
  
"Going through the rubble." Sylia rubbed an aching forehead. "We're already being hounded by the media and the council won't be too far behind."  
  
"I'll take care of it," Candace answered. "Fielding questions would only make you. angrier."  
  
Sylia stood. "Good. That is why you're here."  
  
Sylia walked out leaving Candace along, thinking of the meeting she had had earlier in the day with the man who was most likely responsible for the recent attacks. Her new superior. Her lip curled.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia reached the elevator. Her finger hovered at the direction buttons, an idea that had been germinating at the back of her mind coming to the fore. She had been going to return to her office upstairs, but the idea made her pause. Still indecisive she held her finger between the buttons while her mind raced through the ramifications, and the advantages.  
  
Without knowing it - at least fully - Itto had hit the nail right on the head and rammed it deep into the wood. She was the target, because she was the only person who could hold Genom together. The hits against her had failed so now her enemies were attacking her closest supporters. Linna and Daley had only been back in the country for a little while, most of that time getting the new Knight Sabres up and running.  
  
Did that mean her inside problem knew about them? Sylia's mind charged down the tangent. Itto's words had increased meaning. The evidence Security was pulling up was building in his Department's direction. The constant opposition he made against her strengthened her mental position. But Itto didn't know about her connection to the Sabres. unless he had learnt something from the gratefully deceased Mason's files. That would have to be looked into. Something else to do. She filed the Itto issue back into her memory warehouse, near the front.  
  
And returned to thinking of her new idea. With the attacks and her RRT's already spread thin, the one in Sierra Leone couldn't be recalled because the threats there remained from the rebels and neighbouring countries who were making a fuss about a corporation owning a whole country (wondering if they would be next, swallowed up by Ford or Pfizer). Tokyo still posed a problem as well. While it was still months away the tender decision for the TQZ reconstruction project was grinding closer and maintaining a strong presence in the city was required, despite the logic in having all the Grasshoppers protecting the Osaka facilities.  
  
Taking care of the companies security was paramount as well. Even with the aid of the regular police, her own security force of ex-ADP officers would be hard pressed to make her tens of thousands of employees feel secure. It left her with practically nothing to be proactive and find the attackers before they struck again. Linna and Daley had been that force, quickly destroyed in two deliberate and professional attacks.  
  
But she had to have a force. The Knight Sabre card was still good and hadn't been played yet. If she was going to survive, Sylia knew that she needed an ace up the sleeve.  
  
The greater threat to herself, and as a consequence Genom, forced Sylia's wavering mind. She'd done a lot of hard things to destroy Galatea but none of them were as dangerous as her idea now. But she had to do it.  
  
Sylia pressed down. She had to see Nigel and her brother.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Anxious to hear about news of Linna, and Sylia not having returned any of her calls or email, Nene used her root privileges to access the security camera network and locate Sylia. She saw her in the R&D section, where Mackey also was. Nene hadn't seen Mackie in a few days, so busy with work and wondering what the hell was going on. She could see both of them at the same time.  
  
Leaving her dark office and informing platypus to hold the fort while she was gone, Nene took the lift up to R&D and passed into the secure labs. First she went over to where Nigel and Mackie usually worked. They weren't there. 'In the meeting room with the Chairwoman' someone told her and she thanked them and walked over to the enclosed office, past all manner of boomer related projects. She shuddered. Even after killing Galatea boomers still made her cringe.  
  
Nene stopped short of entering the closed office. Through the open blinds she could see Sylia and Nigel gesturing and yelling at each other.  
  
"Oh no, what are they fighting about now? Poor Mackie, he has to watch it all." Nene said to herself. Around her work continued, either oblivious or not wanting to know.  
  
Nene watched as the two adults argued until they looked like they were going to hit each other. Sylia had her back to her; it was easy to tell that she was in an old mood however.  
  
The argument terminated abruptly when Nene felt Nigel looking at her through the glass. The contact was only brief, but the movement of the wearied man's eyes caught Sylia's attention. The silver haired scorn turned around. She was very pissed off.  
  
The break saw Nigel exiting the office with a stiff face. He said nothing to Nene as he blew past for the elevators. Nene slowly turned to watch him go, feeling that something very permanent had happened.  
  
She turned back to the office when she heard Sylia speaking.  
  
"No Mackie, you stay here. I have to talk to you."  
  
"But Sylia, Nigel is right. This is wrong -" Mackie said.  
  
"Quiet! You will do this -" Sylia snapped.  
  
Nene cringed hearing Sylia speak to her boyfriend harshly. Then she noticed that Sylia was looking at her again.  
  
The office door clicked shut and with a twist of her wrist, the blinds closed. Nene felt very alone.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The taxi dropped Daley off outside the Genom building.  
  
Coat in hand, because his body was still quite hot from the interrogation and proposal with none other than the leader of the Japanese Triad, Daley walked up the steps at a fair clip, not trusting his feet to keep him upright if he walked any slower. It had been that kind of day.  
  
Four Security Guards stood outside the wide front doors. That surprised Daley because there usually weren't any at all, no more than four on the ground level doing rounds at any one time. It was also strange the way they were staring at him. Recognizing one of the guards he called out: "Hey Kota, what's going on?"  
  
Kota stumbled down a few steps. "Shit! It is you."  
  
"I hope its me, too." Daley remarked.  
  
"We thought you were dead. We -"  
  
Daley held up a hand.  
  
"Very slowly, Kato. Tell me what's going on."  
  
When he was first told that his kidnapping had in fact been a rescue from death, Daley hadn't believed. When Kato spewed out what had happened while he had been in interview, that all changed.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Daley's arrival into the security offices floor was no less surprising. Word having been passed ahead, a mass of men and women cheered and clapped when he was revealed by the opening lift doors. Under normal circumstances knowing that he had escaped death he would have felt the same way. Having been told of what had happened to Linna stopped any self-congratulatory notions from rising beyond the hardened expression he wore.  
  
Standing at the front of the crowd was Leon.  
  
"So you are alive." Leon stated.  
  
The response Leon expected to hear, some wittism or other, didn't eventuate.  
  
"I heard that Linna was attacked too, is that true?"  
  
Leon's expression deflated. "Yeah. I don't know how she is, but the guys who saw what was left of her car said it was bad."  
  
Daley only nodded.  
  
"Okay everyone, back to work! No time to waste just because of a little good news, we're still an innings down against the fuckers who hit our people." 'Chief' Roland ordered as he pushed through the crowd.  
  
"Shit, Roland. You need to tone down your tongue." Leon said.  
  
"Like hell, lummox. When my people get hurt, I get angry. Dammit, Daley. I wouldn't let myself believe it until I saw you with my own eyes. Welcome back to the land of the living," the Chief shook Daley hard on the shoulder.  
  
"Daley was just asking about Linna." Leon said with uncharacteristic tact.  
  
"Ah yes. Damn shame. We'll get the bastards."  
  
"I intend to." Daley said, earning surprised looks.  
  
"We'll talk in the office. The Chairwoman's rightfully getting our asses into gear." Roland said.  
  
"The guards outside? Doe she think that the building might be attacked?" Daley asked.  
  
"Not going to take any chances. No ordinary punks blow up a whole floor and do a high speed drive-by. So where the hell were you, anyway?" Roland asked.  
  
"I don't know where, but according to the people who took me, they were rescuing me from the explosion," Daley answered.  
  
"How did they know about it?" Leon joined in.  
  
Daley shrugged. "I'd like to know the truth, too."  
  
Because if what the Triad had told him was true, there was a traitor at the highest level in Genom.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nene was back at her office when she started at the clearing of Sylia's throat. She hadn't heard Sylia enter, and the door had been shut.  
  
"Uh, Sylia. I've been trying to see you," Nene stammered, a little afraid.  
  
"I know. I've been planning to see you as well, but it's been a bad day."  
  
"Yeah. How's Linna?"  
  
Sylia sat on the edge of the desk, an act of deliberate informality. "She'll live. You know how tough she is."  
  
Nene nodded. "She's like Priss. Nothing could keep them down."  
  
Sylia agreed. Linna's resilience was something she was counting on. "Is that what you wanted to see me about?"  
  
"Isn't it enough? Sorry. I was hoping I could go see her later." Nene's fingers idly touched her keyboard.  
  
"She'd like that. It might be hard looking at her."  
  
"I can take it. She's my friend."  
  
Sylia touched Nene's shoulder. "That's good, Nene. Because Linna needs all the friends she has." Leaning closer: "You want to help her, don't you?"  
  
"Of course I do, Sylia." Nene said.  
  
"And find out who hurt her?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then there's something you have to do for me. You know our internal investigations?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I want you to do even deeper. I suspect that the traitor is helping the people who attacked Linna and Daley. The faster he is found and removed the safer Linna will be - they tried to kill her. The normal investigation will take too long. I need you to tap into all communications and cameras and find him."  
  
"Sylia, that could take forever."  
  
"Do you want Linna's attackers to get away?" Sylia started to stand.  
  
"No -"  
  
"I don't care what you have to do, whose privacy you break. Linna needs this from you."  
  
Nene paused for a moment before nodding her head and earning a gracious smile from Sylia.  
  
"I'll do it for Linna."  
  
"Good. She'll want the very best from you."  
  
Sylia left, satisfied.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
The dangerous-looking man Daley and Linna had seen on the previous night's expedition into the ganglands sat across from the Wind Master, the expected traditional acts of reverence already accomplished.  
  
"I find your plan most. peculiar Wind Master," the dangerous man said in a manner that belied the earlier submission.  
  
"And why is that, Deng Chien? Do you not think that my plan will succeed?" the Wind Master replied with more than a faint hint of smile.  
  
"It's success I do not doubt at all. It is the Way."  
  
"What fault then, do you find with the Way?"  
  
Deng shifted in his seat, letting his mind first formulate the words in the correct order and manner so he could articulate the intuition that drove his position.  
  
"The task you have been given by the Abbot is plain in its meaning and there are many plain Ways in which it can be accomplished. The Way you have chosen is complicated and would take a long time. There is much motion against Genom; it is probably that the company will fall before your plan has time to complete."  
  
The Wind Master nodded sagely to Deng's opinion. It was one he respected, for Deng, despite his youth - when compared to his own Confucian age - was a smart and learned man. Otherwise he would not be the Earth Master. "Perhaps I give Genom's Chairwoman more credit than others."  
  
"Your knowledge of her, and her family, is unsurpassed. Yet with foes internal and external rallied against her; the attack earlier today demonstrates how weak her position is. If you had not intervened."  
  
"Ah," the Wind Master exclaimed, leaning back in his ornate chair. "We arrive at the Crucible."  
  
"Wind Master?"  
  
"You wonder why I am helping her?  
  
"It would seem contrary to what the Abbot has instructed, unless you have reference to some wisdom from Confucius or Sun Tzu that I have not been able to relate."  
  
"No, no traditional proverb. But I do like the story of the turtle and the hare. There is no need for us to rush the situation. Genom still has capabilities that have yet to be utilized. It would be foolish for us to be the ones in her sights," the Wind Master said.  
  
"So, you will let Genom and the foreigners weaken themselves first."  
  
"In a manner. But you are quite right that Genom's enemies are stronger; that is why I requested your presence here."  
  
"I was beginning to wonder why."  
  
"No need for sarcasm," the Wind Master said affably, "I am sure you and your men wish to become involved with little delay."  
  
"Idleness is not a trait we like to encourage," Deng said.  
  
"Good, good. There will be work to do shortly, when this phantom the gwai loh have sent acts again."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Candace strummed her fingers on the top of her pine desk.  
  
She was in deep thought, mind devoid of any thoughts of the job everyone thought she was Genom for, solely concentrating on the job that a scant few knew was her true purpose. If those people had been privy to her thoughts, they would have been outraged.  
  
At the base level, Candace: sophisticated and educated French businesswoman and seductress par excellence, felt betrayed and stepped on, simply because she was a woman. Her true employers, Francophile BMC, she felt, regarded her as little more than a body that was to be used to seduce and control the minds of powerful men, so they would do what she wanted, which was meant to be what BMC wanted. Candace always knew that was how many perceived her to be, and she played at it - how else could she have reached the heights she worked at without giving the very thing her superiors thought she did best, to them - but she also had felt that some saw her real talent and acumen.  
  
Until now.  
  
Until a man had come and taken control of what she had been in charge of for almost six months: the demise of Genom. Not only a man, but one who wasn't French, wasn't skilled. Instead an animal. A man who preferred to kill and destroy than to confuse and redirect; who was violent instead of subtle.  
  
A terrorist who would destroy her chance of giving Genom to her grateful masters on a platter. The telex she had received from Paris had dashed any hopes that her plan could be completed. They didn't want Genom, despite the wealth of technology and skills a take-over or merger could provide, they wanted destruction, to see the company collapse and fall into the fire their agent would deliver unto it.  
  
It was taking too long, they had said, thousands of kilometres distant. The objective has changed; a better means to and end has presented itself. Really, she could tell, what they were saying was that a woman couldn't do the job they wanted. If she had been a man, nothing would have changed.  
  
Smirking, she wondered how the chauvinists were reacting to Sylia's resilience. She had almost told them of her success in seducing the Chairwoman. Not now, or ever, unless they valued her properly. How would it gall them, to know that a mere woman not even in her late-twenties was stalling their aspirations?  
  
And what if it were two? They deserved it. She knew what they were planning; with whispers she could let Sylia know and embarrass them and their terrorist until they came begging back to her. Then she could decide, give them what they wanted, or keep the cake and its silver-haired icing all for herself?  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia met Daley in her suite. It was the first time he had been there, at the top of the corporate building. Outside the sun was beginning to set behind the faux horizon of the tallest of the sky towers  
  
"I'm glad to see you alive, Daley." Sylia said.  
  
"I'm glad to be alive."  
  
They would have laughed and smiled, if the occasion had not been darkened by Linna's condition or the threats that palpably hung over their heads.  
  
"Still, I am worried as to the reason why you are alive."  
  
Daley nodded.  
  
"With everything that's been happening recently, I'm sure that you're suspicious about the people who saved me."  
  
"And knew that you were in danger, where as we didn't. Did they know about the attack on Linna?"  
  
"They didn't say. That means they could have, and chose not to, or couldn't do anything about it; or they didn't know."  
  
"Who was it that you talked to?"  
  
"An old Chinese man."  
  
Sylia raised an eyebrow.  
  
Daley took out a typical sized business card from his coat and handed it over to Sylia who took it and inspected both sides. A somewhat look of relief crossed her face before she guarded it again.  
  
"This is possibly some good news," she said.  
  
"We need it. I was wondering if there was a connection between today and the attack on you the night before."  
  
"Most likely." Sylia slipped the card into her dress. "What else did you talk about?"  
  
"Not a great deal, surprisingly. I don't think he needed to." Daley answered.  
  
"Yes. I believe he is the kind of man who knows everything about you and what you do, before you meet him."  
  
"He does know that we have a problem in the company," Daley said, at once feeling relieved and apprehensive about the step he had just taken.  
  
Sylia pondered. It was obvious that she wanted to ask how, and whether he knew who, but kept silent to think, or give pretence of thinking. Daley didn't give any further details, not until he had been asked could he.  
  
Sylia gave into her curiosity. If there was one thing she hated more than anything else, it was being left in the dark. She hated not knowing things that others did. For a mind that had to be in control, such conditions were maddening.  
  
"And?"  
  
"You're not going to believe who."  
  
"Tell me his name."  
  
"Hers."  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Daley let out a long ragged breath as the elevator thankfully took him down and away from his quietly raging boss. Outwardly she had taken the news with barely a twitch of an eyelash, inwards, in her eyes, he could see the coalescing storm clouds. Thank God he'd been dismissed.  
  
The lift doors whisked open and Daley headed towards the outside. Obligations done, he wanted to see Linna. All day his mind had been frantically worrying about her. Finally he could see how she was, and give prayer that she would be alright.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nene was already at the hospital when Daley arrived. She was standing outside the operating room, looking in with tender concern at the sheet covered comatose Linna. Tubes and wires ran into the covering sheet.  
  
"How is she?" Daley said, walking up to Nene.  
  
"Still critical. They've stopped operating for now." Nene's voice was close to breaking.  
  
Daley had to grit his jaw, seeing the woman his affection was growing for lying in serious injury.  
  
"How long have you been here?"  
  
"Not too long. I wish I could stay longer, but I've got work she'll want me to do." Nene said.  
  
"Linna?"  
  
"Sylia thinks that the people who are responsible are the traitors in the company. It makes me mad, Daley, that someone in Genom would try and kill you two and Sylia. Don't they know that if it wasn't for her -"  
  
Daley took Nene into a hug. "It's okay, Nene. There are a lot of bad people out there, not just mad boomers. The ADP never had to worry about real criminals."  
  
Nene sobbed into Daley's jacket. "It's not fun anymore. I don't want to see my friends get hurt. Priss' gone, and now Linna."  
  
"We don't know if Priss is actually dead. And Linna's a fighter. When the doctors fix her up she'll be back and better than before."  
  
"I hope so. When she does wake up I'll give her the best present she could want. The people who did this too her in prison, where I hope they'll rot forever!"  
  
The blonde burst into uncontrollable tears.  
  
Daley did his best to sooth the young woman.  
  
"Let's get something to eat. I'm sure Linna wouldn't like us crying over her like this."  
  
"Why does everyone think they know what Linna would want.?"  
  
"Because she's the sensible one."  
  
The cafeteria was lockated two floors down. Large and empty, a bored human manned the counter to charge for precooked and packaged meals. The uninspired food added to the uninspired decore.  
  
They ate in silence, picking at the food, engrossed in their own thoughts. They didn't notice the approach of a stranger until a hand slapped down a small object on the table in front of Daley.  
  
Both Nene and Daley looked up at the stranger, who was Chinese. The Chinese nodded his head in curt bown, and then walked away. The two pairs of eyes looked back at what had been placed on the table.  
  
It was a half a coin. Circled on one side, brocken on the other. What was different about it from regular coins was that its middle would have had a square hole in it. Two sides remained along the break. Between the half square, and half circle an etched dragon twisted.  
  
"What's that?" asked Nene, 'whats that all about?'.  
  
Daley stared down at the coin long and hard. In one of his pockets were four more pieces like it and the one he had just been given would match with one of those four.  
  
As if the broken coin had the weight of the Earth itself, Daley slid it off the table into the palm of his hand, ignoring Nene's inquiries.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
At night, lit, Osaka castle glowed.  
  
The city was so unlike the jungle. The jungle was full of animals rarely seen unless you were quiet. In the city everything was visible, displayed. Unlike animals, humans, foolishly, did not flee when a predator came along. In the city, the prey thought they were safe.  
  
He would show them, with animal cunning, how wrong they were.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Sylia let her robe hang loose from her shoulders, fully revealing her fevered body. The cell phone lay on the glass coffee table next to the business card handed over by Daley.  
  
Her doorbell rang.  
  
She walked to it, the robe slipping further back. She opened it.  
  
Candace gasped in surprise. "Sylia."  
  
Without a whisper the robe fell.  
  
As did their clutching bodies.  
  
While true and fake passions raged, both calculating minds considered themselves the victor over the other.  
  
/\/\ss/\/\  
  
Nene, returned to work, alone, Daley stood at the operating room window, watching as the surgeons returned to work to save the life of a very important woman. 


End file.
